After Chris Lynn regained his touch from the last season by blasting 74 tuns in just 41 balls. it was Dinesh Karthik and rest of KKR batsmen who kept the momentum going. The total at the end did not look as formidable as it looked at the one stage but still, this will be a daunting task for KXIP unless Gayle decides to cut loose.

Kolkata team went with an unchanged team and were asked to bat first by the Punjabi captain Ravi Ashwin. KXIP had one change of personnel, they replaced Mohit Sharma with a faster Ankit Rajpoot. The start from KKR was a bit subdued as they lost their master blaster Sunil Narine early.

Robin Uthappa then joined Chris Lynn at the crease and the duo went after the leather. There was no stopping to this two as they both kept matching each other in terms of the strike rate. The runs kept coming thick and fast. By the time, the partnership of Uthappa and Lynn was broken, they had added 72 runs in just 40 balls.

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Hero from the last few matches, Shubman Gill failed to make a start today and was run out for only 3 runs. From this moment, Dinesh Karthik and Chris Lynn took the control in their hands and quickly added the bulk of runs. In the span of next five overs, the duo added almost 70 runs and lighted the hopes of 200-plus first innings total.

The end was not filled with the fireworks though and KKR soon ended up only at 191/7 with Andre Tye and Barinder Sran bringing back some momentum in the game for Punjab. Andre Russell failed today and now the onus relied on how Punjabi batsmen take up the chase.