Indian Premier League: Kolkata Knight Riders thrash Lucknow Super Giants to reach top

Lucknow: Three-time champion Kolkata Knight Riders reached the top position in the Indian Premier League points table defeating Lucknow Super Giants by 98 runs with superb all-round performance at the Ekana Cricket stadium on Sunday night.

With this result they reached the top with 16 points from 11 matches.

After scoring a mammoth 235 runs, the visitors restricted the home side at just 137 runs in 16.1 overs.  LSG lost opener Arshin Kulkarni in the second over (9). Captain KL Rahul (25) and Marcus Stoinis (36) put on 50 runs for the second wicket. But after the wicket of Rahul they never got ride of it as they lost wickets in regular intervals.

All KKR bowlers bowled well. The 22-year-old pacer Harshit Rana and spinner Varun Chakravarthy took 3 wickets each while Andre Russell claimed two.

Earlier, seasoned West Indies opener Sunil Narine hammered a 39-ball 81 as Kolkata Knight Riders went on to put up the highest total, reaching 235/6 in 20 overs.

Asked to bat first on a wicket expected to help pacers, Kolkata openers, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine, gave them a solid start as both the batters added their sixth fifty runs partnership (most in IPL 2024) in just 3.4 overs. The duo added 61 runs in just 26 balls as Salt raced to 27 off his first 11 deliveries before falling prey to Naveen-ul-Haq. Salt chased a wide one, and only got a light top edge to it to be dismissed for 32 off 14 deliveries.

Narine's carnage continued on the other end as he reached his third half-century of the season and seventh of his IPL career, off 27 balls. Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi then put on a fifty-run partnership for the second wicket, to follow the half-century opening stand as KKR reached triple figures in the ninth over.

Narine batted dangerously in the last couple of overs -- he could have been caught at long-on, but the fielder there was over-balanced and stumbled over the rope for a six. He could have been caught at short third, but the fielder couldn't quite hold on as he dived and stretched above his head and to the left for a boundary.

Eventually, he was caught on the point boundary, but through the course of a hugely destructive innings of 81 runs (4x6, 7x6) in 39 deliveries. But he already put KKR on course for something epic as Andre Russell hammered a six in his first four balls to suggest he was going to pick up exactly where Narine left off. KKR reached 155/3 in 13 overs.

The dangerous Russel got out for 12 in the nine-run 15th over of Naveen-ul-Haq, courtesy of a brilliant backward-diving catch by Krishnappa Gowtham.

After an underwhelming start to the death overs, Ramandeep Singh found his range in the 19th and 20th overs, pummeling 25 off 6 balls. Three of the balls he faced were hit for sixes while one was hit for four. He scored a double and a single of the other two deliveries.

Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 235/6 in 20 overs (Sunil Narine 81, Phil Salt 32; Naveen-ul-Haq 3-49, Yudhvir Singh 1-24) beat Lucknow Super Giants 137/10 in 16.1 overs (Marcus Stoinis 36, KL Rahul 25, Harshit Rana 3/24, Varun Chakravarthy 3/30, Andre Russell 2/17). Agencies

Also Read: Lucknow Super Giants, Kolkata Knight Riders in battle to cement berth in IPL play-offs

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