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That's all from us for now. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. It will be Monday blues tomorrow, but the IPL will ensure that you can get back home to some entertainment. Mumbai Indians will hose Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium tomorrow. Do join us for that. Until then, this is Bala and Rajarshi signing off. Goodnight!
Right then. It was a dream night for the Knight Riders, with everything they did turning into gold. They have had two victories around the 100 runs margin, which means that the net run rate is stupendous compared to the other sides. They have the same points as Rajasthan Royals at the moment, though they have played an extra game. This is yet another step in the right direction for them, to finish in the top two.
The same cannot be said about the Super Giants though. They have dropped behind Sunrisers Hyderabad who still have a game in hand. With the pounding that their net run rate has taken, they would need to qualify on the basis of points and it would be a tooth and nail fight for them from hereon.
Sunil Narine (Player of the Match): The most important in batting is starting well. We have the backing of the team and that's really important. Hoping to continue it for the rest of the tournament. You have to pick your strengths, the balls you might take on or those you wouldn't. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. It is going very well, Varun is picking up wickets, and my job easier. He is a hard worker, always trying to do better. The boys are up and running, anxious and eager to play cricket. They are ready to take on any situation and come out on top of it.
Shreyas Iyer (Kolkata Knight Riders captain): For the last 6 matches, the boys in the dressing room have created havoc. They were asking why we haven't been winning the toss, but we have been winning matches, haven't we. We don't assess the wicket in first 6 overs. If we have got good start, we go according to that. Sunil said in the timeout that anything close to 200 is a good score. Anything more is an icing on the cake. The way they have been continuing to contribute has been phenomenal. We have to be flexible in the batting order, with the left-right combination. The bowlers have to change their plans and it affects their composure. You will see that everyone is padded up in the dugout. There is no pressure at all, the intent and mindset of the team will be positive. Sometimes it doesn't happen, but most of the time it has. The starts that they have giving us, magnificient. The strokes that they play, it's pure bliss. Hope that they keep this continuing and we are at the back to see to it that we get to a good total.
Harshit Rana (Kolkata Knight Riders): We didn't want to leave anything behind, and had a clear idea of qualifying from here itself. We played our cricket accordingly. Our coaches told us to hit hard lengths, try nothing extra. I focused on that and received benefits from it. I've concentrated a lot on improving on my bowling, had talked to quite a lot of people about it. (On Russell the bowler in those middle overs) Helps a lot, because once he picks up wickets in the middle overs, the momentum shifts towards us.
KL Rahul (Lucknow Super Giants captain): It was a lot of runs to be scored, when you chase a big total you try to go too hard and lose wickets. Just a poor performance overall. Poor performance with bat, ball and field. We've seen how Sunil Narine and Phil Salt bat in the powerplay, they put a lot of pressure. The young bowlers couldn't handle the pressure - he hit some really good shots. That's the IPL, you come up against some great players, your character is tested, and we just weren't up to the mark today. The wicket was really good, felt like a true wicket. Was a bit of bounce, but nothing out of the ordinary. 235 was probably 20-30 runs above par. Our batting was really poor, but that's what happens when you are up against a tall total. We prepare well in advance and talk about opposition batters, spend time talking to the players and see what kind of plans we can come up. We went wrong with our execution. The sooner we learn, the better it is. We made a couple of mistakes coming up against batters like Sunil (Narine). Try and move on from this game, see where we went wrong, try and get better, we're on the road for the next three games. We have to win all three games to be in the top four, that will give us a bit of freedom and be a bit more fearless.
Kolkata Knight Riders beat Lucknow Super Giants by 98 runs!
That is a victory margin of humongous proportions for the Knight Riders. They win the game in style and propel themselves to the top of the table. On the other side of the result are the Lucknow Super Giants. They have had a massive humbling in their last home game, with the net run rate taking a massive dent. This could prove to be decisive if three teams end up with the same points at the end of the league stage.
It was Kolkata Knight Riders all the way, wasn't it. It never felt like LSG were in the game right from the word go. After the batters went berserk and scored 235 runs, they knew that it would take a stupendous effort from the LSG top-order to get anywhere close to the target. And that was not forthcoming tonight. The move to open with an inexperienced Arshin Kulkarni against the likes of Mitchell Starc was certainly questionable, but that was just the start of it.
Nobody apart from Marcus Stoinis got going in that LSG line-up. KL Rahul had a slow start and failed to convert it yet again, falling just when he was starting to open up. He might look back and feel that this has happened more often than a team can afford. Most of us expected Nicholas Pooran to walk in at #4 with the prospect of chasing this mammoth total, but the management decided to send Deepak Hooda in. He too did not survive long. By the time Pooran came in, wickets were falling all around him and the required rate was creeping up rapidly.
When you've got to play attacking cricket against the likes of Narine and Chakravarthy, you are bound to fail more often than not. And that's just what happened in the middle-overs. It was just a procession as the batters tried to go after them and fell to the fielders in the deep. Harshit Rana also reaped the rewards of some tight bowling at the other end, which ensured that the batters were forced to take their chances. And in between all this, Andre Russell bowled a valuable spell, dismissing the two key batters of the opposition - Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran.
It was a commendable performance by the Knight Riders. They were clinical with both the bat and the ball. The side just showed us why they belong to the top of that table.
16.1 Harshit Rana to Ravi Bishnoi, APPEAL FOR LBW, AND THE UMPIRE'S FINGER IS UP! Rana does Bishnoi with the slower one, landing this on a fullish length outside off. Bishnoi, early onto it, misses, is struck on the front pad, and that might well be it! Bishnoi refers this one, though...
Nothing on ultra-edge as the ball passes the bat. All good on the pitching of the ball and impact... umpire's call as the ball clips the leg stump as per ball-tracking. The Kolkata Knight Riders have done the double over the Lucknow Super Giants in the 2024 Indian Premier League!
Ravi Bishnoi LBW b Harshit Rana 2 (3b, 0x4, 0x6)
Time for Strategic Timeout!
Well, not sure what LSG would be discussing during this strategic timeout. They are well and truly out of this now, and the net run rate is going to get a serious dent. Things never got going for them, the Knight Riders were just too good tonight.
16
overs
137/9score
1
0
0
6
0
W
runs
Yudhvir Singh Charak*
7(7)
Ravi Bishnoi
2(2)
Varun Chakravarthy
3/30
15.6 Varun Chakravarthy to Yudhvir Singh Charak, THREE FOR CHAKRAVARTHY! He floats this one up generously as well, but this one was bowled much slower. Bit of away-spin as well as Charak goes for a slog, gets a top-edge, and Russell at cover-point makes no mistake!
Yudhvir Singh Charak c Andre Russell b Varun Chakravarthy Vinod 7 (7b, 0x4, 1x6)
15.5 Varun Chakravarthy to Yudhvir Singh Charak, on a length wide of off, dabbed towards the man at cover
15.4 Varun Chakravarthy to Yudhvir Singh Charak, SIX! Charak gets hold of this one! Tossed up generously outside off, Charak lines this one up, has a slog, and proceeds to find the seats wide of long on!
15.3 Varun Chakravarthy to Yudhvir Singh Charak, quicker, on a length outside off, this one turns a touch away from Charak, who fends at it and is beaten
15.2 Varun Chakravarthy to Yudhvir Singh Charak, floated up outside off stump, this one turned back in and crept past Charak's inside edge as he had a blind slog and missed. Salt did well to keep his eye on it and gather
15.1 Varun Chakravarthy to Ravi Bishnoi, floated up outside off stump, Bishnoi looks to slog, doesn't get all of this. Just a single to the man at long on
Harshit Rana certainly seems to have some wheels on him. He really hurried Krunal Pandya with that bouncer to take the edge. The young pacer has been quite a useful addition to this KKR bowling line-up.
15
overs
130/8score
1
1
2
W
1
0
runs
Yudhvir Singh Charak*
1(2)
Ravi Bishnoi
1(1)
Harshit Rana
2/24
14.6 Harshit Rana to Yudhvir Singh Charak, short ball on off stump at pace, Charak moves away and looks to pull, is done for pace
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S Narine
M Stoinis
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Yudhvir Singh Charak
*
Varun Chakravarthy
Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow
