Twitter Reactions: Sunil Narine and Prasidh Krishna sensationally choke KXIP to help KKR win the game by 2 runs

Karthik finally found some form but his 23-ball half-century went in vain in the end.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

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6 Min Read

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Kolkata Knight Riders. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI)

Finally! It seemed, finally, Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) would win their second game of the season. The equation was so simple for them with 29 runs to get in four overs and had nine wickets in hand. But Sunil Narine managed to choke them single-handedly and who can forget the sensational 19th over bowled by Prasidh Krishna? Dinesh Karthik once again pulled off a sensational move keeping Narine at the back end and it helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) win the game from nowhere.

Earlier, the trend of opting to bat first after winning the toss continued in this game as well. But KKR found themselves in trouble soon. Mohammed Shami castled Rahul Tripathi for just four runs while Nitish Rana was involved in a horrible mix-up with Shubman Gill. At 14/2 in the fourth over meant KKR started slowly and had only 20-odd runs after the end of he powerplay.

Gill and Eoin Morgan rebuilt the innings well to add 49 runs together before Ravi Bishnoi got the better of the latter who was just starting to open up. He scored 24 off 23 balls while Gill continued to drop anchor for the rest of the innings. Dinesh Karthik, under the scanner for his poor form, came out to bat at five and turned the heads with a blitzkrieg. After taking a few deliveries to settle down, he began opening up his arms.

Even Gill concentrated on rotating the strike, the KKR skipper upped the ante superbly and in the 14th over, the run-rate went above six for the first time. Gill got to yet another half-century but the focus point was his partner Karthik on the day thanks to the exceptional range of hitting from him. The latter’s 23-ball 50 helped KKR add 63 runs in the last five overs.

Having said that, KXIP bowlers delivered the good finally thanks to Shami, Bishnoi  and the left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh who impressed especially at the death for the second game running.

The chase of two halves where KXIP choked

The 165-run target looked tricky at the start with the pitch being slow and with KXIP’s vulnerable middle-order. KKR needed some early wickets but KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal played some smart cricket to make sure that they pounced on the opportunity. Both of them punished bad deliveries and then kept on taking singles of the other to not let the asking rate go out of hands.

The duo stitched their second century stand of the season and also crossed their respective 50-run marks. Mayank Agarwal looked classy in his shots while Rahul finally managed to mix caution with aggression. At one stage, it felt like they will only finish the game without much fuss. But Prasidh Krishna, played his first game, managed to provide the breakthrough getting the better of Agarwal for 56.

However, more than half a job was done by then. Andre Russell getting injured in the second over the innings didn’t help KKR’s cause either as they could never put the pressure on the opposition batsmen. However, after Nicholas Pooran got out in a bid to finish things off only to get bowled off Sunil Narine, things started to change. Prabhsimran Singh, surprisingly, came out to bat at four with the pressure building and ended up scoring only a single off four balls.

The equation suddenly was now 20 off the last two overs. This is when Prasidh Krishna pulled off a brilliant over conceding only six runs and dismissing KL Rahul (74) and Prabhsimran. It was Sunil Narine to bowl the final over and Glenn Maxwell was in the middle. But the former was smarter of the two and delivered five good deliveries to leave Maxwell to score 7 runs off the last ball.

The Aussie all-rounder though almost pulled off a shot to take the game into the super over only for the ball to land on the boundary cushions on the full. The third umpire signalled it a four and all the drama ended in KKR winning the game literally from the jaws of defeat. KXIP’s losing rut continued despite dominating the game for 36 overs on the day.

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