The Kolkata Knight Riders were able to easily defeat the Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs. KKR were put in to bat first by Punjab and they seized the opportunity. Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine opened the innings and got off to a blistering start. Lynn was eventually bowled out by Andrew Tye for 27 runs but Narine was on a roll. Robin Uthappa was up next and he smashed a quick 24 runs before departing.
Andre Russell contributed another 31 runs before Tye sent him packing. Narine was eventually brought down for a mammoth 75 runs, but there was another danger man at the crease- Dinesh Karthik. He went on to smash a 50 before stumbling but the damage was done. All that was left to do was have Shubman Gill and Javon Searles to steer the remainder of the innings. KKR notched up a fighting total of 245 runs for the loss of 6 wickets.
via Imago
Kolkata Knight Riders
When KXIP came out to bat, KL Rahul and Chris Gayle got them off to a good start. Gayle was the first victim of the Kolkata Knight Riders bowling attack, departing for just 21 runs. The KXIP batting order showed signs of collapsing with Mayank Agarwal going for a duck and Karun Nair for 3. Aaron Finch entered and stabilised the innings before he returned to the dugout for 34 runs. Axar Patel followed him with 19 runs to his name.
Then the skipper, Ravichandran Ashwin arrived and triggered a fight back, scoring 45 runs in the process. Unfortunately, Prasidh Krishna trapped him for LBW and his stint was over. Rahul too succumbed eventually and Andrew Tye was the last man in double digits. Barinder Sran and Mohit Sharma were the last men standing but could only muster 1 and 4 runs respectively.
In the bowling department, Andrew Tye bagged 4 wickets for KXIP with Barinder Sran and Mohit Sharma chipping in. Tye even had the best figures of 4 wickets for the rate of 10.25 runs. For the Kolkata Knight Riders, Piyush Chawla was the only man without a wicket and Andre Russell bagged the most with 3 with an economy of 10.25. Punjab ended their evening with a total score of 214.
