Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), in a thrilling encounter at the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, sealed a last-ball victory over the Punjab Kings at Eden Gardens, thanks to their impressive finishers Rinku Singh and Andre Russell.
KKR’s Rinku Singh, who had been outstanding throughout the tournament, once again proved to be the hero for his team in their match against the Punjab Kings. Singh played a crucial role in helping KKR secure a five-wicket victory by hitting a boundary off the final delivery of the match. Andre Russell, popularly known as Dre Russ, also made a significant contribution in the penultimate over, setting up the victory for Kolkata.
Needing just six runs off the last over, KKR showed their class and finished the game in style, with Singh’s four off the final delivery taking them over the line. It was a well-deserved victory for KKR, who played excellent cricket throughout the match. With the win, KKR further solidified their position in the tournament and kept their hopes alive for the playoffs.
PBKS’ performance
After winning the toss, the Punjab Kings chose to bat first, but their inconsistent form continued as they lost opener Prabhsimran Singh for 12 within the Powerplay. Bhanuka Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka followed with a three-ball duck, leaving the PBKS in a dire situation at 29 for two inside the first four overs. This means that PBKS’ batting was not up to mark yet a fair start at the beginning of the innings.
The Punjab Kings’ captain Shikhar Dhawan and skipper, Liam Livingstone, who have been among the team’s top performers this season, attempted to increase the run rate. Despite adding a few runs to the total, their efforts were not enough as Varun Chakravarthy, the mystery spinner, claimed the wicket of the dangerous Livingstone in his first over.
Despite a fifty-plus partnership between keeper-batsman Jitesh Sharma and veteran Shikhar Dhawan, the Punjab Kings struggled to stabilize their innings due to the regular fall of wickets. Although Dhawan and Sharma tried to keep the ship afloat, they could never fully settle in.
However, with Shikhar Dhawan scoring yet another half-century, the visiting team managed to post a competitive total of 179 for seven on the scoreboard in their 20 overs. To conclude, the target was 180 for KKR on the scoreboard. It was PBKS’ poor bowling which led to KKR’s win.
KKR’s performance
KKR’s strong bowling lineup was a paramount reason behind the Punjab Kings’ batting performance when it comes to chasing scores of more than 150. The target was on the scoreboard. It was Shikhar Dhawan who scored 57 runs off 47 balls to lead his team from the front. In the meanwhile, KKR’s bowling skills cost them crucial wickets one after the other, which in turn, hampered their batting progress. It was Varun Chakravarthy who took the crucial wickets according to the need of the situation with cool bowling figures of 3/26 off 4 overs.
Even though the captain, Shikhar Dhawan, and Liam Livingstone, including other skippers, tried to increase the run rate, PBKS kept losing the wickets at regular intervals, and the team failed to build stable innings. Dhawan played an important role in the team’s score by scoring his fifth half-century of the tournament, but he couldn’t take the innings forward alone. KKR bowlers made it hard for them since they were giving their wickets away, which was crucial and valuable to score more runs on the board. In the end, they managed to score 179/7.
Now, the target is 180 on board for KKR. The batting performance of KKR was supreme and sheer quality. It was Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, and Jason Roy who led their team to a miraculous win against PBKS at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, on Monday. Moreover, it was Rinku and Russell’s partnership which gave the match an amazing touch to finish the match by winning by 5 wickets. The Man of the Match was Andre Russell, who scored 42 runs off 23 balls and has bowling figures of zero for 19 off an over.
