img source:sportswhoop.com
KKR vs PBKS Match Highlights IPL 2021
Tripathi, Morgan bring 2nd victory for KKR in the League
Kolkata Knight Riders finally broke its losing streak, trouncing Punjab Kings by 5 wickets with 20 balls remaining in the 21st match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) at Ahmedabad on Monday. In reply to Punjab’s mere 123 for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs, Kolkata scored 126 in 16.4 over, having lost 4 wickets. KKR managed its 2nd win out of the six matches they played in the league so far. The captain Eoin Morgan for the first time led from the front, remaining unbeaten47 off 40 deliveries to guide the team to the victory. Otherwise, the team again looked stumbling following the failure of two openers, Shubman Gill (9) and Nitish Rana (0) as well as Sunil Narine (0). Rahul Tripathi however first stopped the diminishing KKR from 3 for 17, scoring 41 off 32 deliveries with 7 fours, followed by Morgan who hit 4 fours and 2 sixes in his innings. Considering the bowling of Punjab Kings, Henriques, Shami, Arshdeep Singh, and Deepak Hooda-all the four bowlers managed one wicket each.
Earlier, the Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and decided to bowl first. KKR is presently struggling at the bottom of the League table with four defeats in their last five matches. Still, the team which stepped onto the ground was unchanged, the same squad that played its previous match.
Punjab Kings on the other hand seemed confident with a nine-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in their previous match. But the reflection of that confidence was not seen on the day. The team that has made one change, bringing in seam-bowling all-rounder Chris Jordan replacing spin-bowling all-rounder Fabian Allen. The team captain K. L. Rahul might have speculated that the pitches at Ahmedabad were more conducive to the medium pacers who could move the ball in both ways.
Batting first, Punjab Kings could score only 123, having lost 9 wickets in 20 overs. Most of their top-order batsmen failed to click on the day. Except for Mayank Agarwal (31 off 34 deliveries), nobody could be able to sustain. Rahul himself got out for 19 while Chris Gayle who had returned to runs in the team’s previous match was dismissed by Shivam Mavi for a duck. The middle-order batsmen also failed to transmit the innings to a creditable score. Had Chris Jordan not been able to strike an aggressive 18-ball 30, hitting 3 sixes with a strike rate of 166.67 Punjab Kings score would not have reached 123 even.
Considering the KKR bowling, Prasidh Krishna whose bowling in the previous matches was under the scanner and who was being termed as 'erratic' however, proved his mettle, making a decent figure of 3 for 30 in 4 overs. Pat Cummins and Sunil Narine managed 2 wickets each while Varun Chakravarthy, the most successful bowler of KKR so far, managed to get only one wicket in his 4 overs, giving away 24 runs.
