In red-hot form, Sunil Narine’s brilliant knock of 81 coupled with disciplined bowling powered Kolkata Knight Riders’ stunning victory over Lucknow Super Giants at Ekana on Sunday. While Narine completed 400+ runs in this season of IPL, the wide margin of win helped KKR to top the IPL points table. Losing the toss, once again, KKR were asked to bat first by LSG skipper KL Rahul. But the plan of restricting the visitors to a sub-par total went out of window as KKR openers blasted the powerplay amassing 70/1. Phil Salt and Narine gave the super start and even after their departure, the death overs explosion led by Ramandeep Singh meant a monstrous total on the board. At the loss of 6 wickets, KKR put 235 on the board. 

In response, LSG batsmen needed to go for a flying start to get going for that kind of total but instead, KKR dominated the game in the second innings as well. In the end, the hosts were wiped opt for 137 in 16.1 overs and KKR won match 54 of Tata IPL 2024.

LSG were never in the game, it seemed. They lost half the side in first 10 overs. Right fpr captain KL Rahul (25), to Deepak Hooda (5), to Arshin Kulkarni (9). Even hard hitters such as Marcus Stoinis (36) and Nicholas Pooran (10) went cheaply.

Harshit Rana and Chakaravarthy each took three wickets, with Narine proving the most economical bowler. KKR’s victory propelled them to the top of the table, tied with Rajasthan Royals at 16 points, albeit having played one additional game.

Lucknow Super Giants vs Kolkata Knight Riders – Scorecard

Lucknow Super Giants:

  • KL Rahul c Ramandeep Singh b Harshit Rana 25
  • Arshin Kulkarni c Ramandeep Singh b Starc 9
  • Marcus Stoinis c Harshit Rana b Russell 36
  • Deepak Hoodalbw b Chakaravarthy 5
  • Nicholas Pooran c Salt b Russell 10
  • Ayush Badoni c Starc b Narine 15
  • Ashton Turner c and b Chakaravarthy 16
  • Krunal Pandya c Salt b Harshit Rana 5
  • Yudhvir Singh Charak c Russell b Chakaravarthy 7
  • Ravi Bishnoi lbw b Harshit Rana 2
  • Naveen-ul-Haq not out 0
  • Extras: (LB-1, W-6) 7
  • Total: (All out in 16.1 Overs) 137
  • Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-70, 3-77, 4-85, 5-101, 6-109, 7-125, 8-129, 9-137, 10-137.
  • Bowling: Vaibhav Arora 2-0-21-0, Mitchell Starc 2-0-22-1, Sunil Narine 4-0-22-1, Harshit Rana 3.1-0-24- 3, Varun Chakravarthy 3-0-30-3, Andre Russell 2-0-17- 2.

Kolkata Knight Riders:

  • Phil Salt c Rahul b Naveen-ul-Haq 32
  • Sunil Narine c sub b Ravi Bishnoi 81
  • Angkrish Raghuvanshi c Rahul b Yudhvir Singh 32
  • Andre Russell c sub b Naveen-ul-Haq 12
  • Rinku Singh c Stoinis b Naveen-ul-Haq 16
  • Shreyas Iyer c Rahul b Yash Thakur 23
  • Ramandeep Singh not out 25
  • Venkatesh Iyer not out 1
  • Extras: (W-13) 13
  • Total: (For 6 wickets in 20 overs) 235
  • Fall of wickets: 1/61 2/140 3/167 4/171 5/200 6/224 Bowling: Marcus Stoinis 2-0-29-0, Mohsin Khan 2-0-28-0, Naveen-ul-Haq 4-0-49-3, Yash Thakur 4-0-46-1, Krunal Pandya 2-0-26-0, Ravi Bishnoi 4-0-33-1, Yudhvir Singh 2-0-24-1.

(With PTI inputs)