Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) registered a thrilling two-run win over Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
KXIP needed just 29 runs off the last four overs and with captain KL Rahul and Nicholas Pooran out in the middle it looked easy for the batting side to chase it down, but a disciplined bowling and some poor shot selection from the batsman led to their fifth consecutive loss in the ongoing IPL.
Prasidh Krishna, playing his first game of the season, took three for 29 from his quota of four overs as KKR stole victory from the jaws of defeat. With seven runs needed off the last delivery, Glenn Maxwell smashed the ball over covers but it landed just inside the boundary line and gave KKR a close victory.
“I have no answers. We just need to keep coming harder in the next seven games. We bowled really well. This was a fresh strip so we didn’t know what were good lines and lengths. And the bowlers adjusted really well. And they were brave at the death too,” Rahul said in the post-match presentation interview.
The KXIP skipper further said that losing wickets at the back end of the chase hurt his team.
“Don’t think we were satisfied at any stage in the chase. You are satisfied only when you win the game. Towards the end, we kept losing wickets, and couldn’t get us over the line,” he added.
Earlier, KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik won the toss and opted to bat first. The Knight Riders got off to a poor start losing the wickets of inform Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana inside the powerplay.
Eoin Morgan tried to steady the ship with Shubman Gill but was outfoxed by Ravi Bishnoi. Morgan scored 24 runs off 23 balls. Gill notched up a gritty half-century before he got run out on 57 in the 18th over.
Karthik, coming in to bat at 5, scored a quick-fire 58 and helped KKR post a competitive total of 164/6 in their stipulated 20 overs.
In reply, Mayank Agarwal and Rahul provided the best possible start for KXIP as the duo put on a 115-run stand for the opening wicket. After Agarwal was out caught on the boundary off Krishna for 56 (39), Pooran joined Rahul in the middle and they were cruising in the chase before a false shot from the West Indies batsman brought his downfall.
KXIP lost three more wickets in the last two overs as they fell short of the target by just two runs.
