LSG vs KKR : KKR won by 8 Wickets
Mitchell Starc got KKR off to a good start with his superb bowling at Eden Gardens on Sunday, followed by a superb knock from Phil Salt to give Kolkata Knight Riders their first win against Lucknow Super Giants. Starc’s 3-wicket haul for 28 runs restricted LSG to 161/7, and then Salt’s unbeaten knock of 89 off 47 balls and an unbroken 120-run partnership with Shreyas Iyer helped KKR win the match with 4.2 overs to spare.
It wasn’t a good start for KKR as IPL debutant Shamar Joseph conceded 22 runs in the opening over. It turned out to be the most expensive opening over of IPL 2024. He troubled both Phil Salt and Sunil Narine with his pace in the first five deliveries, although Narine hit a boundary. But a drop catch off a no-ball was followed by multiple extras and Salt’s chakka off the last ball. Mohsin Khan dismissed Narine for the first time in the season in the powerplay and also took the wicket of Angkrish Raghuvanshi. But regular boundaries helped Salt keep KKR on top of the best powerplay scoring rates.
Salt made a 26-ball fifty to take KKR past 100 in the 10th over. Shreyas used DRS to reverse a caught-behind decision and missed giving Salt out in Joseph’s over. Shreyas struggled a bit against pace but he kept supporting Salt and scored a half-century.
Shreyas’ first 25 runs came off 28 balls, but his strike rate improved when he hit two fours against Joseph, who conceded 14 runs in his final over. Salt then finished the match swiftly, hitting three fours against Thakur, a four and a six against Mohsin, and the winning boundary against Ravi Bishnoi to end his innings with 14 fours and three sixes.
LSG got off to a flying start with Quinton de Kock’s straight drive against Mitchell Starc and KL Rahul’s gorgeous six over covers against Vaibhav Arora. They scored 49 runs in the powerplay but KKR struck at regular intervals. Vaibhav Arora had de Kock caught at short third man and LSG’s No.3 Deepak Hooda, playing in place of Devdutt Padikkal, was caught by Starc where Ramandeep Singh took a good catch at backward point. Rahul, on the other hand, played at a good pace and entered the 30s and along with Ayush Badoni took the innings to 72/2 after 10 overs.
( Courtesy – Cricbuzz )
