Punjab Kings’ Jonny Bairstow celebrates after scoring a century during the Indian Premier League cricket match against Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata on April 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Jonny Bairstow was at his destructive best to smash an unbeaten 108 (48b, 8×4, 9×6) and helped Punjab Kings create history by overhauling host Kolkata Knight Riders’ record score of 261, by eight wickets, at the Eden Gardens here on Friday.

With this incredible achievement, Punjab Kings became the team to record the highest successful run-chase in the annals of all T20 matches.

Chasing the massive score put up by the host, which was the highest T20 total at the venue, Punjab Kings decided to bring in Prabhsimran Singh as the Impact Player (for Arshdeep Singh). The decision paid rich dividends as the opening batter took the KKR bowling attack to the cleaners, hitting boundaries and sixes at will.

The home side, which brought in Sri Lankan speedster Dushmantha Chameera in place of Australian left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, failed to make a mark as Prabhsimran and Bairstow struck a 93-run partnership for the opening wicket.

Prabhsimran (54, 20b, 4×4, 5×6) played the lead role before getting run out by a direct throw from Sunil Narine.

The worst sufferer in the demolition process was Anukul Roy, the left-arm spinner whom KKR brought as Impact Player (for Venkatesh Iyer). Anukul gave away 36 in his two overs as Bairstow took over the task of annihilating the KKR bowling.

The English batter raced to his century in 45 balls. After his opening stand with Prabhsimran, Bairstow constructed two more partnerships — 85 for the second wicket with Rilee Rossouw before finishing the innings with an unbroken stand of 84 with Shashank Singh. The latter remained unbeaten on 68 off 28 balls, hitting two boundaries and eight sixes.

Earlier, KKR rode on the belligerence of its openers Phil Salt and Sunil Narine to reach 261 in its 20 overs. Salt emerged KKR’s top scorer with a 75 (37b, 6×4, 6×6), while Narine made 71 (32b, 9×4, 4×6).

That the Knight Riders’ opening partnership flourished was largely due to the largesse of the PBKS fielders who dropped three catches to help the deadly duo unleash a barrage of boundaries and sixes.

Narine, who was dropped by Hardeep Brar off the bowling of Harshal Patel in the third over when he was 16, utilised the reprieve to spectacular effect. Narine, when on 59, also saw the DRS working in his favour. A leg-before decision by the umpire was overturned as Rahul Chahar’s delivery was going over leg-stump.The charmed lives of the KKR opening duo continued further as Salt earned two ‘lives’ in the sixth and seventh overs before being dismissed on 75 (37b, 6×4, 6×6) in the 13th over when the score read 163.

Brief scores

Kolkata Knight Riders: 261/6 in 20 overs (Phil Salt 75, Sunil Narine 71).

Punjab Kings: 262/2 in 18.4 overs (Jonny Bairstow 108, Prabhsimran Singh 54, Shashank Singh 68).

Kolkata Knight Riders Mitchell Starc will be desperate to justify his $3 million price tag as the team hosts Punjab Kings in Kolkata on April 26.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Kolkata Knight Riders will hope for another positive result at home to strengthen its position in the league table when it meets Punjab Kings at the Eden Gardens in Hyderabad on April 25.

Currently second with 10 points, KKR has a fairly good success rate, having won five of its seven matches. This is largely because of the efficiency of its batting, which has been amassing scores of above 200 regularly.

KKR will be playing its fourth consecutive game at home, where it has won two and lost one in the three previous appearances.

The last match saw 443 runs being scored as the host edged out Royal Challengers Bengaluru by the narrowest of margins — one run.

The KKR top-order has been in good form with the likes of Sunil Narine (286), Phil Salt (249), skipper Shreyas Iyer (190) and Andre Russell (155) contributing. Despite a huge investment, the bowlers have not been able to reach the level expected of them even with the presence of Mitchell Starc, who was bought for a record amount of ₹24.75 crore.

For the ninth-placed Kings, the journey so far has been far from satisfactory. The team lost its last four matches in a total of six defeats in eight games. It will hope to turn things around by outshining the home side.

Teams (from):

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Matthew Short, Prabhsimran Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Sikandar Raza, Rishi Dhawan, Liam Livingstone, Atharva Taide, Arshdeep Singh, Nathan Ellis, Sam Curran, Kagiso Rabada, Harpreet Brar, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Bhatia, Vidwath Kaverappa, Shivam Singh, Harshal Patel, Chris Woakes, Ashutosh Sharma, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Shashank Singh, Tanay Thyagarajan, Prince Choudhary, Rilee Rossouw.

Match starts at 7.30 PM.