IPL history: Top 5 totals by Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders are one of the three teams to have won the IPL more than once. In their long and successful IPL history, they have played many memorable matches and have produced some of the greatest match-winners ever seen in T20 cricket.

Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav are their stars with the ball and their top order has players like Chris Lynn, Dinesh Karthik and Robin Uthappa, with the dangerous Andre Russell in the middle order.

With such a dynamic team, they would have surely dominated the opposition on certain occasions; it goes without saying that they have posted some of the biggest totals in IPL history.

Here are the 5 biggest totals posted by the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL history.

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#5 IPL 2014, KKR vs KXIP - 200/7

Piyush Chawla hitting probably the most important boundary of the match

The Kolkata Knight Riders took on the Kings XI Punjab on the grandest of stages, the IPL final. Both the teams had worked hard to get to that stage, delivering great performances and registering a few thumping wins along the way.

The Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore was bustling with hordes of people waiting to get to their seats even though their home team, RCB, weren't part of the playoffs. The date was 1st June 2014, and KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir won the toss and chose to field.

KXIP lost Virender Sehwag and captain George Bailey early, but Wriddhiman Saha and opener Manan Vohra remained strong. After starting slowly, the duo launched their attack from the 12th over and thrashed the KKR bowlers black and blue.

Saha stayed on even after Vohra's dismissal for 67 and scored an unbeaten hundred as KXIP made 199/4 in their 20 overs. They had scored a whopping 132 runs in their last 9 overs.

KKR's chase started off on a sour note as they lost Orange Cap winner Robin Uthappa early. Manish Pandey consolidated with skipper Gambhir before the latter was dismissed soon after the powerplay.

Pandey and Yusuf Pathan then built a great partnership and got the team to a good position before Pathan got dismissed. But Pandey remained focused on the job at hand even as wickets kept falling around him. He got out when he was on 95, with the team needing 21 runs to win in the last 3 overs.

KKR won in dramatic fashion after Piyush Chawla hit a couple of boundaries towards the end, taking the team score to 200/7 in 19.3 overs. This was their 5th highest total in IPL history.

#4 IPL 2018, CSK vs KKR - 202/6

Chepauk was witness to an Andre Russell blitzkrieg

The Chennai Super Kings were playing on their home ground, the MA Chidambaram Stadium, after two years, and their opponents were the Kolkata Knight Riders. Both the sides were at one win each and MS Dhoni won the toss and put KKR into bat.

Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn opened the batting for the Knight Riders and Narine, after a blistering start, was sent back to the pavilion for 12. Robin Uthappa who was the new man in and he combined with Lynn to build a good partnership, before Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Lynn.

Despite scoring at a good run rate, KKR were losing regular wickets and were 89/5 in 10 overs when captain Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell joined hands.

It was a complete Russell show for the Knight Riders after that as he smashed 88 runs off 36 balls; no CSK bowler could escape unscathed. Dwayne Bravo was the worst sufferer as he was slammed for 50 runs of his 3 overs.

KKR scored 202 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Russell's whirlwind knock consisted of 1 four and 11 sixes.

The match seemed to be in KKR's control but the CSK openers provided the best possible start to the team. They scored 75 runs in the powerplay and looked set for the win. The spinners, of course, brought KKR back into the game as Rayudu and Raina were dismissed in a phase where runs were hard to come by.

MS Dhoni wasn't able to score runs at one end but just when it seemed like they were losing, Sam Billings came to the rescue. The Englishman scored 56 runs off 23 balls and thanks to some late hitting by Bravo and Jadeja, CSK won the match with 1 ball to spare.

Russell's brilliant knock went in vain as the CSK batsmen all chipped in with vital contributions.

#3 IPL 2008, DC vs KKR - 204/4

Sourav Ganguly was the star performer for the Kolkata Knight Riders

The Kolkata Knight Riders played the Deccan Chargers at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Sunday, 11th May 2018. KKR Skipper Sourav Ganguly won the toss and chose to bat on a surface which had a slightly greenish tinge.

Aakash Chopra and Salman Butt opened the batting for KKR and Butt got dismissed in the very first over by Chaminda Vaas. Ganguly came in next and built a solid partnership with Chopra.

The southpaw continued strongly even after Chopra's dismissal, and David Hussey gave him good company. Ganguly got out after scoring 91 off 57 balls but Hussey took charge and he smashed 57 off 29 balls as KKR finished off with 204 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in their quota of 20 overs.

The Deccan Chargers in reply tried to come back into the game multiple times but they never had a long-lasting partnership. They were able to score 181 runs for the loss of 7 wickets courtesy Venugopal Rao's 71 and Rohit Sharma's 33.

Man of the Match Ganguly also picked up 2 wickets to round off a spectacular performance as KKR won the match by 23 runs.

#2 IPL 2008, RCB vs KKR - 222/3

Brendon McCullum set the league on fire with his brilliant innings

The first match of the Indian Premier League will forever remain in the minds of cricket fans, for a variety of reasons. The Royal Challengers Bangalore took on the Kolkata Knight Riders as the world tuned in to see how the tournament would fare.

Rahul Dravid, the RCB captain, chose to bowl at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, and at the time it seemed like the right decision.

But RCB's plans were demolished by a certain Kiwi who just went berserk. Brendon McCullum was a nightmare to bowl to as he smashed 158 entertaining runs off 73 balls, clearing all doubts about how the IPL would fare.

Captain Ganguly got dismissed in the 6th over and Ricky Ponting stayed at the crease for some time. David Hussey and Mohammed Hafeez came in next but McCullum kept going strong as he powered KKR to 222/3 in their 20 overs.

RCB were never in the game as the KKR bowlers piled on the pressure right from the start. Only Praveen Kumar managed double figures as Ganguly, Ashok Dinda and Ishant Sharma demolished the RCB batting order.

RCB were bundled out for just 82, handing KKR a huge victory by 140 runs.

#1 IPL 2018, KXIP vs KKR - 245/6

Sunil Narine's innings was the catalyst for a mammoth KKR total

KKR's highest total came against the KXIP in Match 44 of IPL 2018. Ravichandran Ashwin put KKR in to bat at the Holkar Stadium in Indore in the 1st match of a double header on Saturday, 12th May.

Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine went after the KXIP bowlers right from the start but Andrew Tye pulled one back for KXIP by sending Lynn to the pavilion in the 5th over. Narine however had other ideas as he kept tonking the KXIP bowlers.

What had started as an innings of a pinch hitter, turned into a match winning innings for KKR. Narine smashed 75 off 36 balls and cameos from Russell, Gill and Rana and a quickfire 50 from skipper Dinesh Karthik enabled KKR to a big total of 245/6 in 20 overs.

Virtually all the KXIP bowlers took a heavy hit; only Tye saved some blushes for KXIP.

Chris Gayle and KL Rahul raised some hopes for KXIP but it was too much of a task for the Karnataka batsman as he was bowled by Narine after scoring 66 off 29 balls, with Gayle being dismissed for 21. Their middle order flickered but wasn't able to carry them past the finish line as they finished with 214/8 in 20 overs.