The KKR bowlers stepped up, and all the bowlers chipped in with wickets as they restricted PBKS to a score of just 123/9, which was well below par. Chasing 124, KKR were in trouble early at 17/3, but Rahul Tripathi and Eoin Morgan scored 40s to guide the team home.
It was the first game at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad of the IPL 2021, and it proved to be a low-scoring encounter. Kolkata Knight Riders finally won a game chasing and skipper Eoin Morgan took it upon himself to guide the side home while he was ably aided by Rahul Tripathi. This was after the bowlers had done a superb job of containing a strong Punjab Kings batting line-up.
For the third time in six games this season, Punjab’s batting let them down. All of those three instances have been while batting first, and their reliance on the top three of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, and Chris Gayle is only increasing by the day.
After being inserted into bat first by KKR, the Punjab openers Rahul and Agarwal got off to a sedate start. In the first five overs, only 29 runs were scored. Shivam Mavi bowled three overs in the powerplay and bowled tight lines and lengths, which just didn’t allow the Karnataka pair to break free. They did score 12 runs, which included a six and a four off Pat Cummins, but there were barely any freebies apart from that.
Even Rahul or Agarwal didn’t really try to force the pace either and were happy to keep rotating strike. In the final over of the powerplay, Rahul decided to take the attack to Cummins but perished. He struck a six off a thick edge over third-man, and he was out the very next ball as he ended up skying one to mid-off. The opening partnership, which was just about starting to dwell, was cut short on 36.
Chris Gayle didn’t last long either and was out for a first-ball duck. Mavi bowled his fourth over on the trot and had the Universe Boss nicking one to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps. In the next over, it was Prasidh Krishna’s turn to pick up a wicket as he dismissed Deepak Hooda, who sliced one straight to point.
All this while Agarwal watched all the drama unfold at the other end, and he tried to resurrect the innings. But he holed out at deep mid-wicket to give Sunil Narine his first wicket. Wickets continued to tumble as Moises Henriques and Nicholas Pooran were knocked over by Narine and Varun Chakravarthy. At 79/6, PBKS were staring at a sub-100 all out.
But it was Chris Jordan who provided some flourish in the last couple of overs. He struck three sixes and four in the last two overs to lift Punjab to 123/9 in their 20 overs. It was well below par, but the Punjab bowlers started well.
Moises Henriques, Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh struck in their respective first overs, and KKR were reduced to 17/3 inside the first three overs. Nitish Rana was out for a first-ball duck as he hit a full-toss straight to cover while Shubman Gill’s run of low scores continued as he was pinned LBW by Shami. Ravi Bishnoi picked up a superb catch at deep square-leg to send back Sunil Narine, who batted at No. 4 as Arshdeep had his first wicket.
Once again, the KKR top-order failed, and there was some nervousness even though the target wasn’t huge. The two-time champions had bottled up a few chases before this. But Morgan and Tripathi eased the nerves as the duo struck a few fluent boundaries to ease the nerves and get KKR’s run-chase back on track.
The Morgan-Tripathi pair added 66 runs for the fourth wicket, and it came in just seven overs. Tripathi holed out long-on as Hooda got the breakthrough for Punjab, but it was a touch too late. Andre Russell walked in and hit a couple of boundaries before he was run out trying to take a quick single in the 15th over. Morgan calmly finished off the chase alongside Karthik, who struck a couple of fours in the end.
KKR finally ended their four-match losing streak and handed Punjab their fourth defeat. The Eoin Morgan-led side also got off the last position and moved up to No. 5 on the points table.
Brief Scores
Punjab Kings 123/9 (Agarwal 31, Jordan 30, Krishna 3/30, Narine 2/22) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 126/5 (Morgan 47*, Tripathi 41, Henriques 1/5, Shami 1/25) by five wickets
