Kolkata (West Bengal): Kolkata Knight Riders beat Lucknow Super Giants by eight wickets in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.
Opener Phil Salt struck a magnificent 89 off 47 balls while captain Shreyas Iyer was also unbeaten on a run-a-ball 38 as KKR chased down the target of 162 with 26 balls to spare.
Earlier, LSG posted 161 for 7 in their 20 overs after being invited to bat. Nicholas Pooran top-scored with a 32-ball 45 while captain KL Rahul contributed 39. For KKR, Mitchell Starc took three wickets while Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell got one each.
Match Live Updates Starts From Here
- Over 11-15.4 (162/2)
Phil Salt and Shreyas Iyer ensured that KKR will not lose a wicket here. Salt smashed everything which came in his area while Shreyas played pretty silent innings and was more interested in giving singles to his partner and watching him bat from the other end. The target was below par as it is, and Salt made sure LSG had no chance of defending it. The bowling was mostly wayward from the visitors, except Mohsin Khan and Salt took a proper toll. KKR reached the target with 26 balls to spare and registered their first win over LSG in IPL history. Overall, it was a pretty one-sided encounter as KKR first restricted LSG to a below-par score and chased it down in just 15.4 overs. After facing a defeat against Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Kolkata have come stronger and improved their net run rate with a massive win. - Over 7-10 (101/2)
Phil Salt took the charge and smashed boundaries in almost every over. He was the one who smacked everything which came in his arc to the fence. KKR hammered 43 runs off four overs of this phase. Salt brought up his half-century in just 26 balls while Shreyas was happy to play a second fiddle to the Englishmen. KL Rahul has thrown ball to everyone but nothing has really worked for them. 100-up for the hosts in just 10th over as KKR cruising towards the target. - Over 1-6 (58/2)
Dangerous Sunil Narine got a lifeline when the ball flew back over the short third-man fielder. Joseph has that pace, but the swing was on offer and he showed his skills with a brilliant inswinger against Narine. Salt got lucky on the first ball he faced as he got dropped by Yash Thakur, but no it was a no-ball as well. Shamar Joseph was under the pump in the first over itself as he conceded a boundary on the wide and then Salt hit a six on the second free hit he got in the oven. However, Narine played one straight into the air and Stoinis successfully completed it, but then Raghuvanshi smashed a six right after coming on the crease and then Salt took Krunal Pandya to the cleaners. Mohsin Khan continued to make his presence felt as he removed Angkrish Raghuvanshi on the first ball of his second over. Joseph bowled a decent second over as he conceded only five runs despite conceding a boundary. Salt smashed a couple of boundaries in the Yash's over to continue the moment. LSG have pulled things back in the last two or three overs.
END OF LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS INNINGS
- Over 16-20 (161/7)
Chakravarthy bowled an exceptional final over of his spell and Narine also finished his spell with one wicket and conceded only 17 runs. Both spinners have done their job exceptionally well. Pooran then took charge and smashed three sixes - one against Harshit Rana and a couple off against Vaibhav Arora. He then sent Harshit Rana to the boundary in the next over to help LSG go past the 150-run mark. It seemed that he would take his side to the 170-run mark, but lost his wicket on the first ball of the final over. Starc picked two wickets in his last over and conceded only six runs despite conceding a boundary on the second delivery. It was a nice comeback from KKR bowlers in the last nine deliveries as they took the momentum with them before the start of the second innings. - Over 11-15 (113/5)
LSG Skipper smashed a six on the first ball of the 11th over and lost his wickets on the next ball in a try of hitting another maximum. However, Marcus Stoinis, who came out to bat at number five, displayed the same intent hitting a couple of boundaries in the same over as 16 runs came from Andre Russell's first over. But his stay on the crease was cut short when Phil Salt, the wicket-keeper, took a good diving catch to get rid off Marcus Stoinis (10 off 5 balls). Pooran then hammered one into the orbit off a full toss bowled by Varun Chakravarthy. KKR lost their second review just before Ayush Badoni holed one into the air and gave a simple catch to Angkrish Raghuvanshi at deep square leg. Runs came quickly for LSG in this phase but they lost three important wickets as KKR got the upper hand in the contest. - Over 7-10 (72/2)
KKR bowlers have pulled things back into their favour and have built some pressure over the opposition batters. The runs haven't come easily for the visitors as only one boundary came in the last four overs. Shreyas handed over the ball to Narine right after the powerplay, who did his job beautifully conceding only nine runs off his two overs. Harshit Rana and Varun Chkravarthy bowled one over each and didn't let the batters free their hands and conceded only 12 runs. - Over 1-6 (49/2)
LSG started on a high note as de Kock smashed a couple of boundaries in the first over of the innings, but then KKR made a remarkable comeback picking a couple of wickets including de Kock and Deepak Hooda. However, they failed to take control of the flow of runs. KL Rahul found boundaries in almost every over. KKR bowled Starc three overs in the powerplay and Harshit Rana bowled just one over. It will be interesting to see who will bowl in death overs. Overall, the powerplay has been shared by both the teams as KKR leaked 49 runs while LSG lost a couple of wickets. It's the lowest powerplay score for the visitors this season. LSG batters would look to build a partnership here with Stoinis and Pooran still sitting in the dugout. KKR, on the other hand, would be aiming to put the pressure back on the batters as spinners will bowl in the middle overs and try to break on the scoring rate.
Most wickets lost in powerplay this IPL
12 - LSG*
11 - RCB
9 - PBKS
9 - DC
9 - RR - Impact Substitutes
Kolkata Knight Riders: Suyash Sharma, Anukul Roy, Manish Pandey, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh
Lucknow Super Giants: Arshad Khan, Prerak Mankad, M Siddharth, Amit Mishra, K Gowtham - Playing XI
Lucknow Super Giants: Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul(w/c), Deepak Hooda, Ayush Badoni, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohsin Khan, Shamar Joseph, Yash Thakur
Kolkata Knight Riders: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer(c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy - Toss
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to field.
