Dinesh Karthik played a captain’s knock (58 off 29 balls) under pressure for the first time in this IPL and the bowlers then stepped up at the death as Kolkata Knight Riders won a thriller once again, this time beating Kings XI Punjab by two runs at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Saturday.
Chasing 165, skipper KL Rahul (74) and Mayank Agarwal (56) got the Kings XI off to yet another superb start, stitching together 115 inside 15 overs, before Nicholas Pooran’s meaty blows eased the equation further. But Sunil Narine and Prasidh Krishna bowled brilliantly in overs 18 and 19, respectively, as the Kings XI made a mess of the situation to hand KKR their fourth win of the tournament.
With only 22 required off the last three overs and as many as nine wickets in hand, Karthik turned to Narine, who still had a couple of overs left.
Narine first rattled the stumps of Pooran, who went for a rather unnecessary heave, and then bowled three dot balls in a row. The 18th over went for only two runs with Kings XI requiring 20 off the last two overs.
They had started feeling the pressure, which showed on Rahul too. His Karnataka teammate Prasidh (coming in place of Shivam Mavi) had reasons to smile as his discipline in the penultimate over helped get rid of Prabhsimran Singh and then the Kings XI skipper.
With 14 required off the final over, it was up to Glenn Maxwell to take Kings XI home. Maxwell gave his best, striking a couple of fours with the second coming off the last ball of the match when Kings XI needed a six to force a Super Over. To Maxwell and his team’s misfortune, the ball landed inches short of the boundary.
Earlier, opting to bat first, KKR got off to a poor start, but Gill (57) and Karthik gave their total a competitive edge, which proved to be good enough in the end.
Narine action
Off-spinner Narine has been reported for suspected illegal bowling action during Saturday’s game. “The report was made by the on-field umpires according to the IPL’s suspected illegal bowling action policy,” said a media release. He will be placed on the warning list and is permitted to continue bowling in the tournament.
