Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday defeated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) by 98 runs to grab the top spot on the points table. After Sunil Narine’s yet another electrifying knock, the bowling duo of Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy picked up three wickets each to derail LSG’s chase of 236, bundling them out for 136 with 23 balls to spare.
The remarkable win let KKR dethrone Rajasthan Royals from the first position with 16 points and the best Net Run Rate (NRR) of +1.453. On the other hand, LSG slipped to the 5th spot as they currently have 12 points and an NRR of – 0.371.
It was the first instance when more than 200 runs were scored in an innings at Lucknow’s Ekana Stadium. And to chase a daunting 236, the hosts put their money on Under-19 star Arshin Kulkarni who opened the innings with skipper KL Rahul. The youngster took off well, smashing a couple of boundaries to Vaibhav Arora and Mitchell before falling prey to Ramandeep Singh’s outstanding catch.
LSG losing an early wicket saw Marcus Stoinis making his way into the field to join Rahul in the middle. The duo, in fact, stitched an important 50-run stand for the second wicket but all the hard work went in vain once Rahul lost his wicket to Harshit Rana, who was back after serving a 1-match ban.
Within the first 10 overs, LSG had lost half the side including skipper KL Rahul (25), Arshin Kulkarni (9), Deepak Hooda (5) and big hitters Marcus Stoinis (36) and Nicholas Pooran (10).
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Ashton Turner hit some lusty blows and looked in the mood to showcase his batting prowess but the Australian was supremely unlucky as an inside edge deflected off his boot with Varun Chakravarthy completing a caught and bowled.
Earlier, the in-form Narine, who was dropped twice in the space of two balls, smoked five boundaries in five balls, setting the tone for the KKR innings.
First, he hammered back-to-back fours off Naveen-ul-Haq in the last two balls of the third over. He then attacked the offside, hitting three boundaries on the trot off Mohsin Khan in the fourth over.
Narine and Phil Salt (32) gave the two-time champions the explosive start they have come to expect from the duo. Together they put up a quick 61-run stand before Naveen-ul Haq took the pace off the ball to send the Englishman packing.
Medium pacer Yash Thakur then stemmed the flow of runs in the final over of the powerplay, giving away only two runs as KKR reached 70/1. The LSG bowlers were able to rein in the KKR batters as they kept taking wickets.
Naveen-ul Haq got rid of Andre Russell (12) before Yudhvir Singh, who came as a concussion sub for Mohsin Khan, picked up young Angkrish Raghuvanshi’s (32) wicket in the next over. The Afghan pacer swung back into action to account for the big-hitting Rinku Singh (16) while Thakur removed Shreyas Iyer (23).
(With Agency Inputs)
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