The Caribbean cricketers have always been the centre of attraction in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Their style of playing the game forces the crowd to jump off their seats in joy and the same thing happened on Wednesday night when Andre Russell caused havoc against Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the Eden Gardens.
Put to bat first, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) piled up a colossal 218-run score on the board which turned out to be the highest at this venue. Credit goes to Russel whose innings acted like a catalyst towards the end and propelled the men in purple and gold to a fighting total.
Russell came to bat after the dismissal of Nitish Rana (63). When on three, Russell was yorked by Mohammed Shami off the last delivery of the 17th over but to the horror of KXIP, the umpire signalled a no-ball as the visiting team was found to have one fielder short of the mandatory four inside the 30-yard circle.
The 30-year-old Russell made full use of the reprieve as he hammered five sixes and three fours from the next 11 balls he faced to send the Eden Gardens crowd berserk. He was dismissed in the final over.’
Here’s the video:
KKR made 56 runs in 19 balls after the no-ball incident to score their highest IPL total at Eden Gardens. The KKR innings was lashed with 17 sixes.
Russell though was not the top-scorer for KKR. Robin Uthappa took that honour, remaining not out on 67 off 50 balls while Nitish Rana was the one who set the Eden Gardens on fire before Russell came out with a 34-ball 63.