Picture : Twitter / IPL
KL Rahul led Lucknow Super Giants took another step towards cementing their play-offs spot as they routed a listless Kolkata Knight Riders in the 53rd match of Tata IPL at MCA stadium Pune.
Struggling to stay alive, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bowl first. LSG lost Skipper K L Rahul early for ( 0) a rare failure given his red hot form. But other opener Quinton de Kock was steady and hit a fine 29 ball 50 ( 4 fours , 3 sixes). In form Deepak Hooda chipped in with a valuable 41 ( 27 balls 4 fours, 2 sixes). Krunal Pandya ( 25) , Marcus Stoinis a 14 ball 28 ( 1 four, 3 sixes), Jason Holder ( 13) and Ayush Badoni not out 15 came up with important short cameo’s that helped LSG reach 176/ 7 in their 20 overs. Given their bowling attack . It looked defendable and given the inconsistency of the KKR batting.
For KKR the bowling figures were : Andre Russell 2/ 22 (3 0vers) Tim Southee 1/ 28 ( 4 overs), Shivam Mavi 1/ 50 ( 4 overs) was expensive, Sunil Narine 1/ 20 ( 4 overs) , Anukul Roy 0/ 27 ( 3 overs) , Harshit Rana 0/ 27 ( 2 overs).
And true to the prediction made, Kolkata Knight Riders batting flopped again. Constant chopping, of the playing eleven has marred their campaign and their play-offs chances now slowly disappearing. Opener Baba Indrajith out for ( 0). Aaron Finch picked one time and benched other time and unsure of his place in the line-up fell for (14). Skipper Shreyas Iyer flopped with with (6). His captaincy has been a big let down, Nitish Rana ( 2), Rinku Singh ( 6). meant KKR batting was in absolute tatters. KKR would have slumped further had not big man Andre Russell not played his blistering innings of 19 ball 45 ( 3 fours and 5 sixes) . Sunil Narine scored a 12 ball (22) . The KKR batting was so dismal that only Finch, Rusell and Narine reached double figures. It was a nightmare. KKR eventually were bowled out 101/ 10 in 14. 3 overs. LSG winning by the biggest margin the tournament so far.
While KKR batting was a disaster, that does not take away the credit from the LSG bowlers who bowled with great control and accuracy and hardly gave anything away. Backed by superb fielding .K L Rahul was spot on with his captaincy. Avesh Khan 3/19 (3 overs), Jason Holder 3/ 31 (2.3 overs), Mohsin Khan 1/ 6 ( 3 overs) , Dushmantha Chameera 1/ 14 (3 overs), Ravi Bishnoi 1/ 30 ( 3 overs)
