In the 46th clash of the Indian Premier League (IPL) the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 8 wickets and 7 balls to spare. After winning their last games with comprehensive margins, both the teams decided to keep the winning combination unchanged. However, with the win against KKR, the KXIP opener, Mandeep Singh scored his fifty of IPL 2020 along with Chris Gayle to get the team over the line.
Having won the toss, KXIP elected to field first and they got the priced wicket of Nitish Rana in the first over of Glenn Maxwell itself. KKR was soon found reeling at 10/3 by the end of the 2nd over, as they lost the wickets of Rahul Tripathi and Dinesh Karthik in the same over of Mohammed Shami. At 10/3, KXIP bowlers were all-over the opposition, however, denying to succumb under pressure, Eoin Morgan and Shubman Gill launched an all-out attack as they added 81 runs for the 4th wicket.
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Just when it seemed the KKR had managed to sway the momentum in their favor, Morgan was dismissed on Ravi Bishnoi’s wrong’un as he went for an aerial shot, which landed straight into the hands of Ravi Ashwin at deep square leg. After his dismissal, nothing went in favor of KKR as the KXIp bowlers bagged three quick wickets to spoil KKR’s momentum.
A late burst by Lockie Ferguson, who slammed three boundaries and six in his 13-ball 24 run knocks, took KKR to a decent total of 149 at the loss of 9 wickets. Coming to chase a rather modest target, KL Rahul (28 from 25) and Mandeep Singh gave their team a flying start as they added 47 runs for the opening wicket.
The hero from the last game, Varun Chakravarthy managed to get the early wicket of Rahul. Although, it was the last ray of hope for the KRK bowlers as Rahul’s dismissal led to Mandeep Singh (66 from 56) taking over, as the latter then started playing risk-free strokes.
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On the other side, Chris Gayle (51 from 29) smarted smashing the ball from the word go by targeting the spinner and unfurled some scintillating shots. Taking complete control of the situation, both the batsmen played sensible cricket and added 100 runs for the second wicket. On the back of the crucial knocks of the two batsmen, Punjab managed to chase down the total comfortably and now they have won five games comprehensively.
Hits
Chris Gayle
Chris Gayle has been doing well in the IPL 2020 ever since his first game and all eyes were on him and he started his innings cautiously, after hitting a couple of sixes in the 10th overs, there was no looking back for Gayle as he smashed 51* off 29 balls with the help of just two fours and as many as five sixes.
Mandeep Singh
Mandee Singh did not take long to make a comeback as he played a stable knock after the dismissal of skipper KL Rahul. He remained unbeaten on 66 off just 56 balls. He built solid partnerships with Rahul and Gayle of 47 and 100 runs respectively. He smashed 8 4s and a couple of sixes.
Flops
Prasidh Krishna
Prasidh Krishna never looked at his best against the KXIP batsmen as he gave away 10 runs in his second over and when he came out to bowl in the 16th over, KXIP needed 37 runs and he went on to conceded 10 runs.
Lockie Ferguson
In the last few games, it had happened for the first time that Lockie Ferguson didn’t get to get a wicket in his first over. Even in his penultimate over when KXIP was requiring 27 off the four overs, he was required to bowl an economical over, but Gayle smashed him for 13 runs.
