IPL 2021: Match 21 - PBKS vs KKR, Stat Review: Good day for Morgan, Gayle's record duck and more stats

The venues might have shifted but the low-scoring trend in most of the matches hasn’t in this IPL season. After a steady start by Punjab Kings openers Rahul and Agarwal at the new ground, they never looked in control of the match. Wickets kept falling almost every over, as Punjab ended up with 123/9. Prasidh Krishna was the leader of the bowling with 3 wickets, accompanied by some tight bowling by Shivam Mavi who conceded just 13 runs in his full quota of overs.

Though it was a small target, Kolkata Knight Riders had another top-order fumble, as Shami, Henriques and Arshdeep took a wicket each to reduce them to 17/3. But from there, Rahul Tripathi and Eoin Morgan steadied the ship as they chased the target comfortably without any more hurdles.

Here’s a look at the stats produced during this match:

6 – Ahmedabad hosted its first IPL match for the first time in six years. The last match this ground hosted was on 24 April 2015 between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, which RR won by 9 wickets.

29 – Chris Gayle now has the most ducks in the T20 format. With his 29^th duck today, he overtook Dwayne Smith (28 ducks) in the list of most T20 ducks.

2 – This is only the second time Chris Gayle got dismissed for a first ball duck in IPL, both being against his first IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders. It was Umesh Yadav the bowler who did it in 2017, and Shivam Mavi the bowler today.

4 – This is the fourth time Nitish Rana was out for a first-ball duck since 2020 IPL, the highest of all players in this timespan. Rashid Khan is the second in the list with 3 first-ball ducks.

2 – Punjab Kings total of 123/9 is their second lowest total against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL. Their lowest was 119/6 at Kolkata in 2011.

10 – This is the tenth IPL duck for Sunil Narine, equalling Gautam Gambhir’s record for most ducks for Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL.

3 – Eoin Morgan becomes the third player to score 50+ runs and take 3+ catches for Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL match. The other two who did it are Jacques Kallis in 2011 and Robin Uthappa in 2016.

4 – During this knock, Eoin Morgan reached the milestone of 7000 T20 runs, becoming the fourth England player to reach the milestone. The others are Alex Hales, Luke Wright and Ravi Bopara.

5 – Kolkata Knight Riders have now won 5 of their last 6 matches against Punjab Kings.

19 – This is the 19^th win for Kolkata Knight Riders against Punjab Kings in IPL – by far the most by any team. CSK come second, with 15 wins against Punjab Kings in IPL.

~Written by Kausthub Gudipati