Kolkata Knight Riders. (Photo Source: Twitter)
Courtesy of a stellar bowling display from Varun Chakravarthy, and a composed fifty from Nitish Rana, followed by ruthless hitting from the duo of Andre Russell and Rinku Singh helped Kolkata Knight Riders edge over Punjab Kings by five wickets in a last-over thriller despite Shikhar Dhawan’s 50th half-century in match number 53 of Indian Premier League 2023 at Eden Gardens.
The visitors won the toss, as Dhawan & Co. opted to bat first. However, PBKS failed to get the best of starts as Prabhsimran Singh departed in the second over after 12 runs off eight balls cameo, Harshit Rana not only drew the first blood but also struck twice in his consecutive overs picking Bhanuka Rajapaksa for a three-ball duck. Varun Chakravarthy then ended the short stay of Liam Livingstone at the close of the powerplay, PBKS were left reeling at 53/3 in 5.3 overs.
Shikhar Dhawan, however, kept the scoreboard ticking, along with Jitesh Sharma added 53 runs for the fourth wicket with some glorious-looking shots, Varun Chakravarthy yet again broke the good-looking partnership by picking up a well-set Jitesh Sharma. Dhawan soon rose to his 50th half-century before getting dismissed to Nitish Rana for 57 off 47.
Cameos from Rishi Dhawan (19 off 11), Shahrukh Khan (21 off 8) and Harpreet Brar (17 off 9), helped PBKS post a good total of 179/7 in 20 overs. For KKR, Varun Chakravarthy bowled brilliantly picking 3 wickets for 26 runs in four overs.
Chasing 180, openers got off to a brisk start as they went berserk against the PBKS bowlers in the powerplay, scoring 38 runs in 4.4 overs, slow ball from Nathan Ellis did the trick, as Rahmanullah Gurbaz departed for 15 off 12. Jason Roy and Nitish Rana kept the scoreboard ticking by adding 26 runs for the second wicket, Sam Curran and Liam Livingstone were taken to the cleaners as Roy smashed 38 off 24, before getting dismissed to Harpreet Brar.
Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer together added 51 runs for the third wicket, Rana kept piling runs while Venkatesh Iyer struggled to score runs. Nitish Rana soon rose to his 17th fifty before being dismissed by Rahul Chahar for 51 off 38. With 56 runs to get in 28 balls, the duo of Andre Russell (42 off 23) and Rinku Singh (21 off 10) went wild against the likes of the experienced PBKS death bowling attack to help KKR beat Punjab by a margin of 5 wickets.
Meanwhile, let us look at the stats and numbers from the game between KKR and PBKS
2 -Shikhar Dhawan became the second Indian player alongside Virat Kohli to complete 50 half-centuries in IPL.
14 -Sam Curran has bowled 14 overs in powerplay without taking a wicket in IPL 2023, this is the joint most by any bowler in IPL 2023. Umesh Yadav is the other bowler to bowl the same number of overs without taking a wicket in the powerplay.
3007 -Nitish Rana completed 3000 runs in IPL.
2 -KKR Chase a target of 180, this is their second-highest chase against PBKS at Eden Gardens. Their highest chase of 184 came way back in 2015.
21 -KKR has now won 21 games against PBKS which is the second most number of wins against a single opponent. MI tops the chart with 23 wins over KKR.
51 -Liam Livingstone (51) completed 50 fours in IPL.
150 –Andre Russell completed 150 fours in IPL.
6 -Sixth time in this season, the chasing side has won in the last ball, this has happened the most time in the 2012 season (seven times).
200 -Andre Russell has struck at 200 against PBKS in IPL, this is the second-best SR against an opponent (min 100 + balls). Andre Russell himself tops the list with 205.18 against RCB.
8 -Eighth time in 11 games, PBKS have lost one of their openers inside the second over.