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.

Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by a margin of just 1 run in the Indian Premier League 2024 match in Kolkata on April 21, 2024.
| Photo Credit: K.R. Deepak

In a high-scoring encounter dotted with heart-stopping moments, Kolkata Knight Riders rode on skipper Shreyas Iyer’s half-century and Andre Russell’s excellent all-round showing to manage an exciting one-run win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 21.

Inserted on a batter-friendly track, KKR erected 222 before thwarting RCB’s spirited chase to post its fifth win. Even in a different uniform, RCB suffered its sixth straight defeat.

With RCB needing 21 in the last over, Karn Sharma unbelievably punished Mitchell Starc in his seven-ball 20 before being dismissed by the Aussie. With three needed off the last ball, wicketkeeper Phil Salt’s spectacular diving run out stopped RCB just at the brink.

During RCB’s reply, Harshit Rana surprised Kohli with a high full toss and took a catch. The third umpire found it to be a legal delivery and gave Kohli out to the dismay of the batter.

After Faf du Plessis’ departure, Will Jacks (55) and Rajat Patidar (52) counter-attacked. Jacks, who dominated the leg-side, mercilessly clobbered bowlers. Jacks, who scored 22 off a Starc over, formed a 102-run association with Patidar, who effortlessly clubbed the spinners, in 48 balls.

KKR’s lucky mascot Russell provided crucial breakthroughs by accounting for both in the 12th over.

Narine scalped Green and Mahipal Lomror in the next over before KKR bowlers, led by the superb Harshit and Russell, excelled in the death.

Breezy start

Earlier, Salt gave a fine exhibition of clean stroke-play to set up a solid platform for KKR. Salt (48), who hammered 28 off Lockie Ferguson’s first over, put up a breezy 56-run partnership with Sunil Narine before falling to Mohammad Siraj.

Yash Dayal dismissed Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi in the sixth over and Cameron Green removed Venkatesh Iyer in the ninth.

Shreyas and Rinku Singh batted sensibly to add 40.

Shreyas executed his shots smartly on either side as he drove, pulled, reverse-hit and uppercut in his first fifty of the season.

Russell and Ramandeep Singh plundered 36 runs in the last two to take the host past 200 for the fourth time.

Scoreboard

Kolkata Knight Riders innings: Phil Salt c Patidar b Siraj 48 Sunil Narine c Kohli b Dayal 10 Angkrish Raghuvanshi c Green b Dayal 3 Venkatesh Iyer c Lomror b Green 16 Shreyas Iyer (c) c du Plessis b Green 50 Rinku Singh c Dayal b Ferguson 24 Andre Russell not out 27 Ramandeep Singh not out 24 Extras: (B-4, LB-7, NB-2, W-7) 20

Total: (For 6 wickets in 20 overs) 222

Fall of wickets: 1-56, 2-66, 3-75, 4-97, 5-137, 6-179.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru bowling: Mohammed Siraj 4-0-40-1, Yash Dayal 4-0-56-2, Lockie Ferguson 4-0-47-1, Karn Sharma 4-0-33-0, Cameron Green 4-0-35-2.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru innings: Virat Kohli c & b Harshit 18 Faf du Plessis (c) c Venkatesh b Chakravarthy 7 Will Jacks c Raghuvanshi b Russell 55 Rajat Patidar c Harshit b Russell 52 Cameron Green c Ramandeep b Narine 6 Suyash Prabhudessai c Raghuvanshi b Harshit 24 Mahipal Lomror c & b Narine 4 Dinesh Karthik c Salt b Russell 25 Karn Sharma c & b Starc 20 Mohammed Siraj not out 0 Lockie Ferguson run out 1 Extras: (B-1, LB-4, W-4) 9

Total: (All out in 20 overs) 221

Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-35, 3-137, 4-138, 5-151, 6-155, 7-187, 8-202, 9-220, 10-221.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Harshit Rana 4-0-33-2, Mitchell Starc 3-0-55-1, Varun Chakravarthy 4-0-36-1, Sunil Narine 4-0-34-2, Suyash Sharma 2-0-33-0, Andre Russell 3-0-25-3.

Riding on 20-run win over Chennai Super Kings, Delhi Capitals will start on a confident note during their Indian Premier League 2024 match against Kolkata Knight Riders.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The 20-run win versus Chennai Super Kings is an indicator of where Delhi Capitals was, is, and can be. The squad on paper and its performance in the first two matches was uninspiring and, according to assistant coach Pravin Amre, is inspired now and can do better.

That establishes that DC isn’t complacent having just outplayed the defending champion.

What caused the turnaround needn’t be examined forensically. For it may easily be attributed to its familiarity of its home ground. “We were here for two weeks (pre-season), and I think the first couple of weeks, there was a dew.

“But we were aware that there won’t be that much (dew) that day in particular, because it was windy. And I think that was an important decision to go there and bat first,” said Amre on the eve of his team’s clash against Kolkata Knight Riders here.

It’s with this kind of familiarity and the wind-supported swing that Khaleel Ahmed generates with the new ball that DC will take on the Knight Riders.

On the other hand, it might just be the right venue and match for Mitchell Starc to come good for the visitor. Starc against the DC openers would make for an interesting contest. As it would to watch DC trying to contain Andre Russell from muscling shots of mayhem.

Overall, it’s about if the newly confident DC can best a high-flying KKR.

The Teams (From):

Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant (c), David Warner, Prithvi Shaw, Yash Dhull, Abishek Porel, Axar Patel, Lalit Yadav, Mitchell Marsh, Pravin Dubey, Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Khaleel Ahmed, Ishant Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Tristan Stubbs, Ricky Bhui, Kumar Kushagra, Rasikh Dar, Jhye Richardson, Sumit Kumar, Swastik Chikara and Shai Hope.

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, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

Match starts at 7.30pm IST.

Bengaluru: Kolkata Knight Riders’ Venkatesh Iyer plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders, at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru, Friday, March 29, 2024. (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak) (PTI03_29_2024_000300B)
| Photo Credit: PTI

Just six overs into the chase, the writing was on the wall. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had established utter dominance, while Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had nowhere to turn.

While RCB gently tiptoed to 182 for six, KKR sprinted to the finish line in their IPL encounter here on Friday. KKR’s all-out attacking intent was made clear by openers Phil Salt (30, 20b, 2×4, 2×6) and Sunil Narine (47, 22b, 2×4, 5×6), who smashed fearsome blows to rack up 85 runs in the first six overs.

With the required run rate now down to seven an over, Venkatesh Iyer (50, 30b, 3×4, 4×6) and Shreyas Iyer (39 n.o., 24b, 2×4, 2×6) faced no pressure. The middle-order duo settled in, picked on the loose deliveries, and helped KKR reach home with 3.1 overs to spare.

Save for a wicket for local lad V. Vyshak, the 34,000-odd spectators had little to cheer about in the KKR essay.

Earlier, Virat Kohli (83 n.o., 59b, 4×4, 4×6) carried his bat for RCB, even if he was not in full flow. Kohli and his partners struggled when the pace was taken off by the KKR bowlers.

Cameron Green (33, 21b, 4×4, 2×6) and Glenn Maxwell (28, 19b, 3×4, 1×6) kept Kohli company in uninspiring partnerships.

For the third successive outing, Dinesh Karthik came to the rescue in the death overs. Karthik walked in to bat in the 18th over, and provided late momentum with an eight-ball 20.

A shoddy fielding display let RCB off the hook. The worrying trend was set when Ramandeep Singh fluffed a run out chance early in the essay to hand Green a life.

It got worse for Ramandeep, when he put down a skier at deep mid-wicket when Glenn Maxwell was on 11.

KKR was further embarrassed when Narine fluffed a sitter a short while later to give Maxwell another reprieve.

In the 17th over, the virus spread to Varun Chakravarthy, who failed to hold on to a low catch offered by Anuj Rawat.

The KKR opening blitz, however, made up for these failings.

KKR cruises to victory

Knight Riders romped home, reaching the target in 16.5 overs for the loss of only three wickets. Venkatesh top scored with 50 while openers Salt and Narine made 30 and 47 respectively. Shreyas (39 n.o.) and Rinku (5 n.o.) took the team past the finish line