IPL 2019: Match 52, KXIP vs KKR - Who Said What

The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have all but ended the Kings XI Punjab’s (KXIP) Indian Premier League (IPL) season this year. Kings will now have to win their final match and hope literally for a miracle to qualify with 12 points to their name. However, if this match is concerned, it was about Chris Lynn and Shubman Gill who set the tone in a steep chase for the team and the latter rather stayed unbeaten till the end to keep his team alive.

Lynn and Gill, opening the innings with a lot of pressure, were extremely cautious at the start. Lynn started opening himself up after the first three overs and Arshdeep Singh couldn’t bear the heat. The Australian went on to smack 46 off just 22 balls and Robin Uthappa carried the momentum with a quickfire knock of 22 runs. Meanwhile, Shubman Gill struggled early on but held on to his wicket to gain confidence.

Uthappa’s wicket could’ve been the turning point in the game if not for Gill’s brilliance. Andre Russell walked out to bat four but the youngster was unperturbed. He took the attack to the opposition to bring the required run-rate down and Russell too slammed a couple of big shots before getting out on 24. Though it didn’t matter much as Gill (65*) and Dinesh Karthik (21*) made sure there were no further hiccups.

KKR got over the line with two overs to spare which also must have helped their overall NRR and they will be hopeful of beating Mumbai Indians now in the final league game.

Curran special helps KXIP post 183

Earlier, it was Sam Curran who helped the KXIP to post a daunting total on the board. After losing KL Rahul and Chris Gayle early in the innings, Nicholas Pooran played a brilliant 48-run inning to keep the team in the hunt. He was well supported by Mayank Agarwal. However, the continuous fall of wickets meant the home side were behind the eight ball.

But the last couple of overs changed the momentum thanks to Curran who batted at six. He scored 55 off just 24 balls to churn out 22 runs off the final over bowled by Harry Gurney and his knock made the team believe at the halfway stage. However, it wasn’t enough in the end and his heroics went in vain.

Man of the Match, Shubman Gill said:

It feels great, my first MoM at my home ground. Can’t get better than this. It was important to build partnership. The run-rate was going around 9-10, so that’s when I decided I had to stay in there. Even some relatives from my village came to watch so it’s great to play in front of everyone. We have one more match to go, and it would be very nice if we can win that and make it into the play-offs.

Kolkata Knight Riders skipper, Dinesh Karthik said:

We live to fight another day. It’s been a hard few days. I wasn’t too happy with the way the bowlers and the fielders were doing, so I thought I should let the boys know what I felt at that time. It si rare, not many people have seen me angry. If I feel I need to be angry to get the best out of the boys, then maybe.

The last over went for 10 runs too many, but we have to give it to Sam Curran. IPL is that kind of a tournament where someone comes in and scores runs for you, so there’s that balance. It’s a big ground, but we did the small things well.

Ran well, put pressure on the bowler, and good execution on the batsmen. It’s fair that we have given Gill a chance at the top of the order, and he has grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

Kings XI Punjab skipper, Ravi Ashwin said:

It’s been a par total. We have defended 175-180 before but we knew very well that there’s gonna be dew in the second half and I thought they batted really well. Starting with Lynny and then Gill played superbly.

We bowled well in the first three overs and then it just got a little away from us and obviously that edges didn’t help. Massive positives for us with respect to Pooran and Sam. Sam batted beautifully, we all know he is got the ability and he’s got the fight in him and he pulled off pretty well.

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