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After starting their campaign with a victory, Team India took on the Afghans in a contest which promised to be an exciting one.

Team India’s quest towards World Cup glory began with an Aussie challenge in the scorching Chepauk heat.

Over the years, the KKR has always managed to strike a beautiful balance between experience and youthful exuberance in their squad composition and have been instrumental in grooming and producing some of the top tier talent that have gone on to shine in the IPL and international cricket. The Knights think tank has developed a reputation for not only identifying players from domestic cricket but also unpolished stars from club cricket and helping them flourish in the IPL. Their strategy of drafting in promising youngsters from the national youth teams has also paid rich dividends over the years. Players from both past and present have hailed the Knights support staff, the academy and the preparation camps as being crucial in their growth as a player.

In yet another game that went down to the absolute wire, a late Rinku Singh onslaught almost saw the Knights home, as they fell short by a solitary run against the Lucknow Super Giants. Winning the toss and choosing to bowl first, the Knights had LSG reeling at 73/5 in the 11th over before Nicolas Pooran’s 50 took them to a competitive score of 176/8. Young pacers Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora were impressive once again, not allowing LSG to score freely early on and picking up wickets at the top. Vaibhav Arora in particular looked menacing, dismissing Mankad and Stoinis in the 7th over to give the Knights the upper hand. Sunil Narine kept the pressure on the LSG batters in the middle overs picking up 2 wickets for 28 runs in his 4 overs. The Knights began the chase in domineering fashion as Jason Roy and Venkatesh Iyer put up a 61 run opening stand before the latter was dismissed in the 6th over. However, the Knights lost a bit of momentum in the middle overs losing the wickets of Rana and Roy in quick succession. As the ball started to hold up, runs started to dry up and the Knights also kept losing wickets trying to stay in touch with the asking rate. Needing 41 to win off the last couple of overs, Rinku Singh who had held up one end so far, got into his zone, taking 20 of Naveen ul Haq in the 19th over to set up a nail biting finish. Needing 21 to win off the last over, Rinku almost pulled off the impossible yet again as he plundered 16 runs off the last 3 balls only for the Knights to fall short by 1 run at the end. Rinku finished the innings not out at 67* of 33 in what was his 4th 50 of the season. The southpaw also finishes the season with 474 runs to his name at an astonishing average of 59.25 and SR of 149.5! Speaking after the match, Nitish Rana lauded the efforts of Rinku Singh for the remarkable season. The Skipper stressed on needing to get better on all three fronts next year and said that the Knights will work on their weaknesses to put up a stronger challenge next year. The Knights will bow out of the season with their heads held high despite the disappointment of missing out on a playoff spot. The emergence of Rinku Singh as one of the best finishers in the game along with Harshit and Vaibhav proving themselves capable of leading the Knights attack in the latter stages of the league, are big positives that the Knights will take away from the conclusion of the league stage. The likes of Varun Chakaravarthy and Venkatesh Iyer also rediscovered their mojo this season and will look to build on the hard work they put in this year. With young uncapped players putting their hands up and leading the charge throughout the season, the future of the Knights is in good hands.

The Knights will be hoping to go out all guns blazing in the final league match of the season as they host the Lucknow SuperGiants for the first time at the Eden Gardens.Needing a big win to improve the NRR and boost qualification hopes, the Knights have their task cut out against the side who are placed 3rd in the table.

Kolkata Knight Riders are renowned and believe in grooming young talents and helping them shine on the big stage. The two-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions have enabled several youngsters to rub shoulders with international stars, and many of them have even gone on to represent India at the international level. This year, too, the Knights have brought youngsters like Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana and Suyash Sharma to the fore, who have churned out impressive performances when given chances. Take Arora as an example. The young pacer played a key part in KKR’s six-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on May 14 (Sunday), which keeps them afloat in the ongoing TATA Indian Premier League (IPL).

In response, the Knights lost Gurbaz, Roy and Venkatesh early before Rinku and Rana took charge. The southpaws got together with the scoreboard reading 33/3 after 4.3 overs with the Kings on top and their 50000+ crowd rallying them on. But Rinku and Rana had other plans on the night as they absorbed the pressure admirably and stitched together a partnership that took the game away from the hosts. The duo were particularly impressive on how they took on the CSK spinners, giving them no wickets and scoring runs at a brisk rate to never give them a sniff in the game. The partnership of 99 runs was broken only by a direct hit from Moeen Ali as Rinku Singh fell short of his crease and returned to the pavilion for another well made fifty. Skipper Rana and Russell then ensured there were no more hiccups with the former top scoring on the night with a well made 57* of 44 balls. Speaking after the match, Skipper Rana credited all 3 departments for raising their game in this match. He particularly singled out Coach Pandit’s decision to use the heavy roller at the innings break which proved to be a gamechanger. Skipper Rana also added that the conversation between him and Rinku was that they had to hold fort at one end in order to chase the score down. Rinku Singh was awarded the Man of the Match for his 54 of 43 balls and said that when he joined Skipper Rana at the crease, the latter told him that this is a tough wicket to score runs and they had to be cautious. Rinku said that his experience in first class cricket helped him in this game as he is used to batting at no. 5 in such slow wickets where scoring can be difficult. With this memorable win on the road, the Knights go upto 6th in the table and will next host the Lucknow SuperGiants at the Eden Gardens on Saturday in the final league game of the season.

The Knights face the Super Kings in Chennai needing 2 points to stay in contention for a spot in the playoffs. The Knights are currently 8th in the table with 10 points while the Kings are 2nd with 15 points on the board. The two teams have faced each other 28 times in the past with the hosts winning on 18 occasions while the Knights coming out winners on 9. The most memorable encounter between the two for the Knights would be the 2012 final win at the Chepauk which gave us our maiden IPL trophy. The Knights will be hoping to draw every bit of inspiration ahead of the crunch game against the in form hosts. The wicket at the Chepauk has been great for sides batting first this season with several 200 plus scores being registered at the venue. However, on a couple of occasions the spinners have come into play as well and it will be interesting to see how the wicket plays out on Sunday. Varun Chakravarthy, the local boy could be a key figure as he has led the Knights attack admirably picking up 17 wickets so far this season at an average of 20.88. With 20 wickets, Sunil Narine has been the most prolific bowler for the Knights against the Super Kings over the years and the wily spinner will be looking to make an impact in a venue he has done well over the years. Among the batsmen, Venkatesh’s return to form is good news for the Knights as his firepower up top can make a huge difference in crunch games. Going into their penultimate game of the season and needing a big result to stay in the race, Skipper Rana and the boys will have to put their best foot forward to get the 2 crucial points that will keep them in the playoffs race going into the final round of fixtures.

The Knights suffered a heartbreaking loss at the Eden on the night as an inspired knock from Yashasvi Jaiswal led the Rajasthan Royals to a 9 wicket win. Put into bat first in a track similar to the previous game against Punjab Kings, the Knights lost openers Roy and Gurbaz early before Rana and Venkatesh steadied the ship. However, Rana (22) holed out in the deep looking to up the scoring rate in the 11th over with the score reading 77/3. Venkatesh Iyer held up one end and hit some lusty blows on his way to 57. However, the Knights could not accelerate enough as the wicket started to hold up making shotmaking difficult towards the end overs. Needing 150 to win, the Royals lost Jos Butler early courtesy a fantastic direct hit from Dre Russ but Yashasvi Jaiswal’s subsequent blitzkrieg took the game away from the Knights. Jaiswal and Sanju Samson combined to put on a 121 run stand that took the Royals home with 9 wickets to spare. Speaking after the match, Skipper Rana rued the fact that the Knights couldn’t post a par score which the bowlers could be comfortable with on the night. The Skipper was all praise for Jaiswal though saying it was his day and everything the youngster did came off. The Knights will next take on CSK at the Chepauk Stadium on Sunday in a bid to keep themselves in the running for a spot in the playoffs.

Having pulled off another last ball win in the previous encounter against the Punjab Kings, the Knights will look to go all out in the match against Rajasthan Royals today to make it 3 wins on the trot and stay in the race for a place in the playoffs. The two teams have faced each other 27 times in the IPL with the Knights holding the edge with 14 wins. The two teams haven’t met yet in this edition of the IPL but faced each other twice in last year’s edition winning one apiece. Both the teams go into this fixture with 10 pts each from their 11 games and 2 points could see the winners go up to 4th in the table.

With over 100 games and 2500 runs in the IPL, Nitish Rana is one of the most exciting batsmen to have featured in the world’s premier T20 cricket league. The southpaw who has been a crucial figure for the Knights for the last 5 years has been one of the most consistent players in the KKR squad over that period.

In yet another incredible finish, Andre Russell 42(23) and Rinku Singh 21* (10) came in clutch in the final overs to take the Knights home in a topsy turvy game at the Eden Gardens on Monday night. Winning the toss earlier in the evening, Punjab Kings chose to bat first. The Kings came into the game with 4 consecutive 200 plus scores but found going tough against the new look Knights pace attack with younster Harshit Rana 2/33 impressing once again removing Punjab opener Prabhsimran Singh and Rajapaksa in a fiery opening spell. With 3 wickets down within the powerplay, the Knights spin trio then collectively gave away just 81 from their 12 overs with Varun Chakravarthy once again being the pick of the bowlers picking up 3/26 in his 4 overs. Skipper Rana also chipped in with the crucial wicket of Shikhar Dhawan in the 15th over to ensure the Kings Skipper didn’t take the game away from the Knights towards the end of the innings.