Kolkata Knight Riders transfer to the highest spot after comfy win over Lucknow Tremendous Giants

The Kolkata Knight Riders moved to the highest of the Indian Premier League standings after placing up a complete 98-run win over the Lucknow Tremendous Giants on the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.

The guests had been put in to bat after Lucknow captain KL Rahul received the toss, and have become the primary workforce to attain greater than 200 runs on the venue this season, scoring 235/6 after 20 overs.

The Knight Riders’ bowlers – together with a powerful fielding efficiency – put the stress on the hosts within the chase. Finally, the hosts can be bowled out for 137 after 16.1 overs.

Central to the Knight Riders’ batting efficiency was their in-form opener Sunil Narine, who high scored with a commanding 81 off 39. There have been additionally useful innings from Phil Salt (32 off 14), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (32 off 26), Shreyas Iyer’s 23 off 15, and Ramandeep Singh’s blistering and unbeaten 25 off simply six deliveries.

The Lucknow chase by no means fairly obtained going, save for the brief cameos by Marcus Stoinis (36 off 21) and Rahul (25 off 21). The Kolkata bowlers made work troublesome for the hosts, with Harshit Rana and Varun Chakravarthy choosing up three wickets every whereas Andre Russell took two essential wickets.

With the win, the Knight Riders transfer to the highest of the desk, degree on 16 factors with the Rajasthan Royals, who’ve a recreation in hand. The Kolkata workforce nevertheless, has a greater web run price.

Turning level of the match

With Stoinis and the damaging Nicholas Pooran on the crease, there was all the time an opportunity that the Tremendous Giants might get to the goal. However the brief spell by West Indian all-rounder Russell turned the tide in favour of the Knight Riders.

Russell got here into bowl within the tenth over, and along with his first supply, he obtained Stoinis to mistime one straight to Rana at level.

In his subsequent over, the twelfth of the innings, a short-pitched supply exterior off tempted Pooran to play cross-batted, solely to edge it again to Salt, who took a wonderful catch at full-stretch.

These had been the one two overs that Russell bowled. He did give away 17 runs, however he took the 2 essential wickets that crippled the Lucknow chase.

The Discipline’s Participant of the Match

Narine has been in stellar type this season. With the bat, he has been a damaging opener for the Kolkata workforce. With the ball, he has been economical and has a knack of choosing up essential wickets.

He did a lot of the identical on Sunday as properly.

His innings of 81 runs was laced with six boundaries and 7 sixes. And he completed with economical bowling figures of 1/22 in 4 overs.

For his efficiency with the bat, he has moved to 3rd place within the race for the Orange Cap (award for the very best run-scorer). His 461 in 11 innings is in need of solely Chennai Tremendous Kings captain Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 541 and Virat Kohli’s 542.

Among the many high 5 batters at this stage of the competition although, his strike price of 183.66 is the most effective.

‘Only a poor efficiency general’

The Lucknow Tremendous Giants are in fifth spot after the loss and must win every of their remaining three matches to have any probability of creating it to the playoffs.

The workforce wanted a win on Sunday, however a “poor efficiency” throughout the board, as Rahul put it, let the hosts down.

“When you’re chasing a giant complete, you attempt to go too arduous and you find yourself shedding wickets. Yeah, [it was] only a poor efficiency general, with bat, ball and within the subject.

“That’s how the IPL is. You come up in opposition to some actually good gamers. That’s when your character is examined, and I feel we weren’t on top of things at the moment.”

— Lucknow Tremendous Giants captain KL Rahul on the post-match presentation