IPL 2019, Match 6: 3 Unnoticed things from KKR vs KXIP match

With the hope to continue their winning streak, the Kings XI Punjab and the Kolkata Knight Riders took the field in the 6th game of the Indian Premier League's season 12 at the iconic Eden Gardens.

The Knight Riders' opened their batting with Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn; whilst Mohammed Shami opened the attack for Punjab. The first over, saw the KKR openers trying to explore the condition and the pitch, as they scored just one run off that over. Ravichandran Ashwin then decided to take a risk and asked the debutant Varun Chakravarthy to bowl the second over. Sunil Narine, who was batting at that time, grabbed this opportunity with both hands and whacked 25 runs off the over.

Both the openers were soon dismissed after providing the team, a fiery start. Nitish Rana and Robin Uthappa continued this momentum and built an excellent partnership of 120 runs. After a great start, which was followed by a terrific partnership in the middle overs, the hosts just needed a perfect finishing touch. Andre Russel did exactly what his team needed; as the Carribean all-rounder played yet another cracking knock of 48 runs in just 17 balls. This helped KKR to post a staggering target of 219 runs in 20 overs.

Chasing a mammoth target, KXIP did not get off to a great start. KL Rahul was dismissed in the second over and was followed by the wicket of the dangerous-looking Chris Gayle not long after. Sarfaraz Khan too departed soon after Gayle's wicket and Punjab were 77/3 by the end of 10 overs; needing 142 runs off the last 60 balls. From there, Mayank Agarwal and David Miller tried to create hopes for the red army fans as they started to do damage from both ends. However, after Mayank's wicket, they could not recover and eventually lost the match by 6 wickets.

Here are some unnoticed things from the match.

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#1 Mandeep Singh bowls for the first time in IPL

One of the main reasons behind KXIP's defeat was the captaincy of Ravichandran Ashwin. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner first gave the ball to young debutant Varun Chakravarthy in the second over and then asked Mandeep Singh, to bowl against the in-form Nitish Rana in the 12th over. Mandeep was bowling for the first time in the IPL and not surprisingly was thrashed for 18 runs by Rana.

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#2 KXIP bowlers concede 126 runs in the last 6 overs and 92 runs in other 14 overs.

Poor bowling from KXIP helped KKR post a big total on the board.

The first innings of the sixth game of the Indian Premier League witnessed some terrific power hitting. The brutal force that the KKR batsmen displayed was simply stupendous to watch. In this game, the textbook techniques were all replaced by the mentality of clearing the fence.

With the help of two great knocks from Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana and handy cameos from Andre Russell and Sunil Narine, the home team posted a mammoth total of 218 runs. The batsmen hit 17 sixes in the first innings; which is the most in this season so far.

One interesting part about this carnage was that the Kolkata batsmen preferred to score runs in specific overs. On one hand, the each of the overs such as the 2nd, 14th, 18th & 19th went for more than 20 runs, whilst the 1st, 5th, 15th etc over, on the other hand, didn't even cost six runs each. This calculated batting helped KKR to score a total of 126 runs in 6 overs and allowed them to bat without pressure in other overs.

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#3 Varun Chakravarthy's most expensive bowling in the TNPL: 4-0-28-0; while his first over in the IPL - 25 runs

The mystery spinner didn't have an ideal debut for KXIP

Varun Chakravarthy is one of the most talented young bowler going around in the Indian domestic circuit currently. The 27-year old was the highest wicket-taker from Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy. This had earned him great fame as made his first-class debut for Tamil in the 2018-19 Ranji season. In 2018, he performed brilliantly in the Tamil Nadu Premier League as well. Although he could strike only 9 wickets in 10 games, it was his economy rate that attracted attention. He bowled with an economy of 4.70, which was the lowest for any bowler in the competition.

These consistent performances earned him a hefty amount in the 2019 IPL auction. Varun was sold for a whopping 8.4 crores to the Kings XI Punjab. He made his debut in the recently-concluded IPL game between the Kings XI Punjab and the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, the debutant didn't have a good outing, as 25 runs were scored in the first over of his IPL career. The number of runs was just three runs short of what the mystery spinner had conceded in his most expensive four-over spell in the TNPL.

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