The TATA IPL 2023 gets more and more interesting with every passing match and as of Monday, all the teams in the tournament are pretty close to each other except the Gujarat Titans. With Kolkata Knight Riders registering a stunning last-ball win against the Punjab Kings at the Eden Gardens, all teams find themselves in the thick of the top-four chase.
Punjab batted first after winning the toss and got off to a decent start. But a few quick wickets derailed them from their path. Prabhsimran and Bhanuka Rajapaksa got out in quick succession. Liam Livingstone couldn’t get going for a long time as well, which saw Punjab lose three wickets in the powerplay. Enhance your IPL viewing experience with attractive betting odds from PlayNextBet.
Shikhar Dhawan’s crucial partnership alongside Jitesh Sharma steadied the ship and Dhawan soon went on to complete his century. The duo set the platform for the lower order to take over and they produced a stellar finish. Rishi Dhawan (19 off 11), Shahrukh Khan (21 off 8 balls), and Harpreet Brar (17 off 9 balls) took the side to 179/7 in 20 overs.
Punjab started well with the ball too, not giving away too many runs in the powerplay. But after Rahmanullah Gurbaz departed, Jason Roy and skipper Nitish Rana took it upon themselves to accelerate the scoring rate and they did it in style. While Roy fell just short of what could’ve been a well-deserved half-century, Rana ensured he got there.
The skipper, however, departed soon after his fifty and the onus fell once again on Andre Russell and Rinku Singh to deliver the big finish. Venkatesh Iyer could not get going and was dismissed for just 11 off 13 balls as the pressure mounted up on the batting unit.
Russell, however, as he has done on multiple occasions throughout his IPL career, bailed the Knight Riders out of this difficult situation. The match started turning in favor of KKR in the 16th over where Rinku and Russell smashed 15 runs, followed by three sixes in the 19th over off Sam Curran, leaving just eight runs to win in the final over.
Arshdeep Singh’s excellent control in the 20th over dragged the game to the final ball, with even Russell not able to get hold of him. Russell was dismissed in an attempt to scamper a single, but Rinku smashed the bowler for a boundary over a fine leg. The purple caps flew in full momentum for the next few minutes as the KKR players jumped into celebrations, as they move now to the fifth spot in the points table. Follow PlayNextBet Sports to get all the latest updates from IPL 2023.
Brief Scores
Punjab Kings 179/7 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 57, Varun Chakravarthy 3/26) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 182/5 in 20 overs (Andre Russell 42, Rahul Chahar 2/23)
