Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s half-century and Arshdeep Singh’s lethal bowling helped Punjab Kings start their campaign in a rain-affected Indian Premier League (IPL) by defeating Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by seven runs using the Duckworth-Lewis method here on Saturday. . Rajapaksa (50 off 32 balls, five fours, two sixes) and skipper Shikhar Dhawan (40 off 29 balls, six fours) added 86 runs for the second wicket to set a good platform.
The KKR bowlers put a little curb on the runs after this, but despite this, the Punjab team managed to score 191 runs for five wickets. In response, KKR had scored 146 runs for seven wickets in 16 overs when rain came, due to which the game could not be played further. Andre Russell scored 35 and ‘Impact Player’ Venkatesh Iyer scored 34 runs for KKR. For Punjab, left-arm fast bowler Arshdeep took three wickets for 19 runs in three overs. KKR’s innings started half an hour late due to faulty floodlights.
After this, Arshdeep upset KKR’s strategy by dismissing Mandeep Singh (two) and Anukul Rai (four) on extra bounce balls in the second over of the innings itself. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (22 runs off 16 balls, three fours, one six) stopped the attitude as soon as Nathan Ellis handled the ball. In this way, KKR scored 46 runs losing three wickets in the powerplay. Sikandar Raza caught captain Nitish Rana (24 runs off 17 balls, three fours, one six) at point and then took the catch of new batsman Rinku Singh (four) off Rahul Chahar to make KKR score 80 for five. Gave.
After this Russell and Venkatesh added 50 runs for the sixth wicket. After hitting a six and a four off Karen’s ball, Russell caught Raza standing on a wicket on a short pitch ball. However, 18 runs were scored in this over of Karen, which also included Shardul Thakur’s six. Russell hit three fours and a six in his 19-ball innings. Arshdeep also dashed KKR’s hopes by dismissing Venkatesh in the first over of his second spell. Thakur was playing on eight and Sunil Narayan on seven when the game was stopped due to rain.
Earlier, Punjab made a positive start and scored 56 runs for one wicket in the powerplay. Prabhsimran Singh played the first two overs and set a good platform for the team by scoring 23 runs in 12 balls with two fours and as many sixes before being caught behind off Tim Southee (2/54). Umesh Yadav (1 for 27) conceded only one run in the third over of the innings but Rajapaksa leveled the score by hitting Sunil Narine (1 for 40) with two fours and a six.
His six on Shardul Thakur (no wicket for 43 runs) after the powerplay was visible. KKR skipper Nitish Rana allowed all five of his bowlers to bowl an equal two overs each in the first 10 overs but none except Umesh and spinner Varun Chakravarthy (1 for 26) could check the run flow. Punjab skipper Dhawan, meanwhile, hit some eye-catching fours to take his side to triple digits in 10 overs. Rajapaksa reached his half-century off 30 balls, but was caught at long-on soon after in an attempt to play a long shot off Umesh.
Jitesh Sharma (21 off 11 balls), who came to the crease to replace him, hit Narine for a six of 97 meters. He also hit Southee for a six but the experienced New Zealand fast bowler forced him to take a simple catch on the next ball. The wait for Dhawan’s first half-century as captain increased. Chakraborty bowled him with a duck, while Narine conceded only three runs in the 18th over and dismissed Sikandar Raza (16 off 13 balls). After this Sam Karen (26 not out off 17 balls) and Shahrukh Khan (11 not out off seven balls) took the score to 190 runs.
