Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings are up against each other in the 45th match of the Indian Premier League 2021 at Dubai International Stadium. Both teams have a chance to qualify for the playoffs, KKR in particular have a better shot to make it to the last four.
KL Rahul won the toss and opted to bowl first. Chris Gayle has left the IPL 2021 and he is replaced by Fabian Allen in the squad while Mandeep Singh and Harpreet Brar have made way for Mayank Agarwal and Shahrukh Khan. KKR left Lockie Ferguson and Sandeep Warrier and brought in Tim Seifert and Shivam Mavi.
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Chasing 166, PKBS got off to a good start thanks to their star openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal. They had their fair of luck as well. Tim Southee was bowling the first over and Mayank was on nought when KKR skipper Eoin Morgan dropped a regulation catch at the slip.
However, he redeemed himself by plucking a rather tough catch of Mayank at the same fielding place. But he had scored 40 runs by then and shared 70 runs for the opening stand with Rahul. Varun Chakravarthy provided KKR with the first breakthrough.
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M45: KKR vs PBKS – Mayank Agarwal Wicket https://t.co/0zb0kpkvGk
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Riding on Venkatesh’s fifty and Rahul Tripathi’s 34 runs, KKR posted 165/7 in 20 overs. Both set batsmen got out in a short span of time and KKR lost the plot from thereon. They managed only 50 runs in the last six overs. Nitish Rana played a handy knock of 31 runs in 18 balls where he hit two fours and as many sixes.
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Arshdeep Singh bagged three wickets while Bishnoi managed to dismiss both set batsmen of KKR. Shami took one wicket in his spell of four overs while conceding 23 runs.
