KXIP vs KKR: Sam Curran’s 55* off 24 balls powers Kings XI Punjab to 183/6 vs Kolkata Knight Riders

Sam Curran provided a much needed final flourish for Kings XI Punjab with an quickfire 55 off 24 balls, to help KXIP to 183/6 against Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 52 of IPL 2019 at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium, Mohali on Friday.

After Nicolas Pooran and Mayank Agarwal had revived KXIP’s innings that stuttered early on with the quick wickets of KL Rahul and Chirs Gayle, the lower-order of KXIP put in handy contributions, as 68 runs were scored in the last six overs, with 32  runs coming in the final two overs bowled by Andre Russell and Harry Gurney.  Gurney’s last over was taken for 22 runs with the sequence being 2,2,2,4,6,4.

Mandeep Singh played a cameo of 25 off 17 balls.

For KKR, Sandeep Warrier returned 2/31 in his four while Gurney, Andre Russell and Nitish Rana picked one wicket each.

2nd STRATEGIC TIME OUT UPDATE

Pooran gave a good account of himself an 27-ball blitz, racing to 48 runs, but was undone by the part-time spin of Nitish Rana, caught at deep midwicket by Sandeep Warrier. However, Pooran innings ensured that KXIP’s run-rate was up and running as they reached 115/4 in 14 overs, when the second strategic time-out was taken.

Pooran and Mayank Agarwal added 60 runs in just 6.4 overs, with Pooran doing the bulk of the scoring, hitting three fours and four sixes. But, Dinesh Karthik’s bowling change in the form of Rana in the 11th over reaped rewards as Pooran failed to time a short of length ball and was caught in the deep.

Two overs later, KXIP lost Agarwal to a run-out after he had scored 36 off 26 balls. Rinku Singh’s from deep midwicket was palmed on to the stumps by Sunil Narine.

POWERPLAY UPDATE

KXIP lost the in-form KL Rahul and Chris Gayle early and managed to post 41/2 in the powerplay over.

Kerala’s Sandeep Warrier, playing only his second game of the season, made the two telling blows by removing Rahul in his second over and then added the scalp of Gayle in his third. Rahul was foxed by a slower one and was caught at mid-on, while Gayle clipped a half-tracker straight to Shubhman Gill at deep square leg.

Warrier’s first spell read 3-0-22-2. Harry Gurney started well, but was taken for XXX runs in his second over with Nicolas Pooran hitting the first six off the night over long-on. SuniL Narine bowled one over so far giving away just three runs. At the end of powerplay overs, KXIP had the ultra-aggressive Pooran on (16* off 9 balls) and India international Mayank Agarwal (9 off 6 balls) in the middle, rebuilding for their team.

TOSS UPDATE

KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik won the toss and elected to bowl first against KXIP. KKR are unchanged while KXIP bring in Sam Curran and Andrew Tye in place of Mujeeb ur Rahman and David Miller.

Teams:

Kings XI Punjab (Playing XI): Lokesh Rahul, Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Sam Curran, Simran Singh(w), Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Andrew Tye

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Sunil Narine, Chris Lynn, Shubman Gill, Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Piyush Chawla, Sandeep Warrier, Harry Gurney

Karthik: We’re going to bowl first. After a long time I won the toss so I was a bit confused as to what I should be saying, but they say there is a bit of dew out here. You have to control what you can control and I don’t think you should be thinking too far ahead. We’re playing with the same team.

Ashwin: I would’ve bowled first as well, but I’ll take batting too. We’ve lost players at the brink of the game, one of the captains was in fact kind enough to let me swap after the toss as well. We’ve got Sam Curran and AJ Tye back for us. Miller and Mujeeb are out.