KKR locked horns against Punjab Kings on Monday and it was skipper Nitish Rana who wreaked havoc with the bat and helped Kolkata Knight Riders win by 5 wickets against Punjab Kings. KKR’s skipper scored 51 off just 38 balls alongside West Indies legend Andre Russell who also made 42 runs in just 23 balls, helping their side seal a victory on Monday.
Earlier, Punjab Kings won the toss and decided to bat first, skipper Shikhar Dhawan making a terrific half-century in the IPL 2023 game on Monday. Dhawan ended up scoring 57 runs off 47 balls and helped his side score a decent total of 179 runs. Punjab lost their fancy batters early in the innings as Prabhsimran Singh, Sri Lankan batter Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and Liam Livingstone departed in the powerplay phase itself, despite making 58 runs.
Apart from Shikhar Dhawan, it was Jitesh Sharma who made a crucial 21 runs in the middle, helping Punjab gain momentum. Coming down the order, Shahrukh Khan amassed 21 runs in just 8 deliveries and powered Punjab to a decent total.
In reply, KKR batters were also reeling at one point in time but then it was Andre Russell who turned the tables alongside left-hander Rinku Singh who smashed a four off that to take KKR over the line but Arshdeep Singh made sure that the match went down to the last ball.
For KKR, Varun Chakravarthy scalped three wickets for 26 runs and Harshit Rana picked up two wickets after giving away 33 runs.
PBKS Playing XI: Prabhsimran Singh, Shikhar Dhawan(c), Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma(w), Sam Curran, Shahrukh Khan, Harpreet Brar, Rishi Dhawan, Rahul Chahar, Arshdeep Singh.
KKR Playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Brief scores: Punjab Kings: 179 for 7 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 57; Varun Chakravarthy 3/26, Harshit Rana 2/33).