IPL-2023: Kolkata Knight Riders win by 5 wickets over PBKS: Russell and Rinku Singh brilliant finish
In IPL Cricket, Kolkata Knight Riders won by 5 wickets against PBKS as Russell and Rinku Singh finished brilliantly. KKR got the upper hand in the unpredictable battle at the end of the 53rd IPL match held at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The last 19, 20 overs resulted in a defeat for PBKS.
Varun Chakravarthy’s miserly spell, Nitish Rana’s half-century and brisk knocks by Jason Roy, Andre Russell and Rinku Singh powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a last-ball win over Punjab Kings, at the Eden Gardens. The five-wicket win on Monday helped KKR register their fifth win of the season and move to the fifth position on the points table.
An entertaining start
Shikhar Dhawan and Prabhsimran Singh came out all guns blazing against KKR’s bowlers in the Powerplay. They didn’t hold back from stepping out of the crease and playing on the up. Prabhsimran smashed three boundaries in the first over by Vaibhav Arora while Dhawan welcomed Harshit Rana with a couple of more hits to the fence in the first three balls. However, the early assault was negated quickly with a flurry of wickets. Even as the visitors added 58 runs in the Powerplay, they lost the wickets of Prabhsimran, Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Liam Livingstone in the process.
Russell, Rinku provide the finish touches
Andre Russell, who had walked out to bat in the 14th over, was looking scratchy early on. Even his first boundary came via a top edge of Ellis that got him going. While the plan to go short or yorker to Russell proved quite effective, the all-rounder was quick to go big against the variations and the errors in execution by the PBKS pacers. He belted Ellis’s slower one and Arshdeep full deliveries for boundaries. In the 19th over, he hammered three sixes off Sam Curran – first one off a yorker, second of a slightly shorter length and third a slower bouncer. With 20 runs off the over, KKR were just left needing 6 in the final over.
Arshdeep bowled superbly to bring the equation down to 2 runs off the last delivery, which included Russell’s run out. However, a rare error in length – a low full toss on the legs of Rinku was picked up and sent for a boundary through the fine leg region.
SCORES: Punjab Kings 179/7 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 57; Varun Chakravarthy 3-26) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 182/5 in 20 overs (Nitish Rana 51, Andre Russell 42; Rahul Chahar 2-23) by 5 wickets.
