KKR's spinner Krishna show ruled the roost at Abu Dhabi as he removes KL Rahul off the last ball of his spell and ended with figures of 3 for 29 with Sunil Narine bowling a super last over to power his team to a 2-run win against Kings XI Punjab on Saturday at Abu Dhabi.
Pat Cummins started with the new ball in his hands, with a slip in place for KXIP openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal as they began their 165-run chase. The Aussie speedster was great with the first over and gave way just three runs from it. Andre Russell sustained an injury and was taken off the field after dropping KL Rahul on 2* at mid-off in Prasidh Krishna's 1st over.
Both KXIP openers assured that their team gets a steady start at Abu Dhabi. At the end of the powerplay, the scoreboard reads 47/0 with yet another 50-run stand between the duo. KKR now desperately needed a breakthrough and introduced spinners from both ends as Sunil Narine was handed the ball. But, both batsmen looked comfortable against all the bowlers.
At the half-way mark, with 10 overs gone, KXIP reached 76 for loss of no wickets. Meanwhile, KXIP skipper KL Rahul brings up his 19th IPL fifty, 4th this season and the 1st while chasing this season. His partner on the other end, Mayank Agarwal too joined the party and two balls after Rahul's fifty notched up his seventh IPL 50.
Just when it seemed the openers will easily guide their team to a win, there was twist in the tale. Krishna got the better of Agarwal to end the century stand between him and KL Rahul, with KXIP needing 50 off 34 balls. Agarwal (56) looked to up the ante but had to depart after giving a simple catch to Shubman Gill in the deep.
Nicholas Poornan, the next man in, finished the 16th over with a maximum with KXIP needing 29 runs from the last four overs. Pooran looked to finish things early and went for a big hit but missed the ball completely and lost his stumps for 16 runs off 10 balls.
The equation went down to 20 runs needed off the last 12 balls. Prasidh Krishna struck twice to remove Prabhsimran Singh and skipper KL Rahul in the 19th over. Sunil Narine was called to defend 12 runs in the last over with Maxwell on strike who could manage to get only 10 runs. KKR won the game by just 2 runs.
Earlier, Kings XI Punjab bowlers came up with a spirited performance today and looked promising in the start of the game as they bagged early wickets by departing Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana in the 1st powerplay but a solid batting partnership between Shubhman Gill and skipper Dinesh Karthik powered KKR to 164/6.
Kolkata today registered the second-lowest powerplay total (25/2) in IPL 2020 after Delhi Capitals (23/2).