Picture Credit : BCCI
Pushed on the back- foot after two consecutive losses to Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders produced a quality all round show to beat Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs .
Put into bat by Kings XI skipper Ravichandran Ashwin in very hot day in Indore, KKR posted a mammoth 245 for 6, their highest ever total and fourth-highest in the history of the league.
Sunil Narine, a 36-ball-75 , skipper Dinesh Karthik played an equally significant role with his 23-ball-50, Andre Russell 13 ball 31 gave the late surge.
Karthik hit five boundaries and three sixes while Russell had three maximums apart from a couple of fours. They added 76 runs in 5.1 overs to take the total past 200-run mark. Shubman Gill (16 off 8 balls), Nitish Rana (11 off 4 balls) then hit some lusty blows to take the team closer to 250-run mark. Aussie Andrew Tye bowled impressively for the Kings with figures of 4 / 41 from his four overs.
Earlier, Narine and Chris Lynn (27 off 17 balls) added 53 in 5.2 overs before the Queenslander was dismissed. However the next partnership between Narine and Robin Uthappa (24 off 17 balls) yielded 75 runs in 6.1 overs.
Chasing a massive target was too much for the Kings, in smashing form KL Rahul tried his bit with a 28-ball-66, which wasn’t enough as KXIP could only manage 214 for 8 in 20 overs. Chris Gayle (21 off 17 balls). Aaron Finch (34 off 20 balls), Axar Patel (19) and skipper Ashwin (45) scored runs but the target was simply too much
For KKR Andre Russell (3/41 in 4 overs) was the star with the ball.
