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Kolkata Knight Riders

about 2 years ago

Kolkata Knight Riders registered their second win of IPL 2021 with a 5-wicket victory over Punjab Kings in Ahmedabad on Monday. A spectacular bowling performance helped the Knight Riders restrict their opposition to 123-9, while skipper Eoin Morgan ((47* off 40) and Dinesh Karthik (12* off 6) remained unbeaten to finish off the chase proceedings for KKR with 20 balls to spare.

Winning the toss and electing to field first, KKR rode on multiple bowling performances to corner Punjab. Sunil Narine with 2-22 and Prasidh Krishna with 3-30 had a remarkable outing. Pat Cummins accounted for a couple of wickets too, even though he turned out to be a little expensive (2-31 in 3 overs).

Young Shivam Mavi once again shone with the ball. He bowled all his 4 overs in one spell and his figures of 1-13, that included the prized wicket of Universe Boss Chris Gayle (0), attested for his excellent control over line and length throughout.

Varun Chakaravarthy pitched in as well with an important wicket of Nicholas Pooran (19). The really impressive part about KKR's bowling today was their hunger for regular breakthroughs and had it not been for some late blitz from Chris Jordan (30 off 18), Punjab would have had even lesser than 123 runs to defend.

KKR were an improved side in fielding too. Rahul Tripathi was brilliant as usual on the field, taking a spectacular catch to dismiss the highest scorer for Punjab, Mayank Agarwal (31), off Narine.

Chasing a modest 124 to win, KKR again had a dismal start. Nitish Rana went back with a first-ball duck while Shubman Gill perished for an 8-ball 9. Narine who was sent in at No. 4 lasted barely 3 balls before throwing his wicket away while trying to open his account with an unnecessary big shot.

While KKR were tottering at 17-3 in 3 overs, it was Tripathi (41 off 32) who held the fort for the Men in Purple and Gold and stitched a vital 66-run partnership off 48 balls with Morgan to pull KKR out of an alarming situation.

Talking after the win, Morgan said, "We've worked incredibly hard, but didn't perform as well as we would have liked initially. Today our performance was really, really impressive, especially from our bowlers and the way we started and kept the pressure throughout."

With this win KKR have now jumped to the 5th position in the points table with 4 points. They play Delhi Capitals next on April 29.