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IPL 2021 | PBKS vs KKR: Hits & Flops as the Purple brigade return to winning ways

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Kolkata Knight Riders returned to winning ways after they defeated Punjab Kings by 5 wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad to climb to the fifth position in the points table on Monday, 26 April. Coming into the match on the back of three consecutive losses, the Kolkata Knight Riders needed a victory to gain some momentum. The victory was largely built around a sensational bowling performance from the Men in Purple and a mature innings from the blade of Eoin Morgan. 

 A target of 124 never seemed enough when KKR began the run-chase but the loss of three early wickets pushed them to the back foot straightaway. Nitish Rana was dismissed off a juicy full toss in the opening over of Moises Henriques while Shubman Gill was trapped plumb in front by Mohammed Shami. Again the ploy to send Sunil Narine at No 4 didn’t work out as KKR was reduced to 17/3. 

With the Kolkata based franchise left in disarray, Rahul Tripathi got the scare of his life when Chris Gayle dived to his left at short cover and threw the ball directly at the bowlers’ end. Tripathi felt that he was short of his crease and his reaction after the dismissal was a testimony to that. However, he was surprised and pumped up to see that he had just reached the popping crease was saved. 

Tripathi admitted at the end of the match that it was a heart in the mouth kind of situation, “Yes, I thought for a second that I was late to dive. But fortunately, I made it. I was a bit upset (thinking I was run out), but after watching the replay, I was very happy.”

From there on it was a good partnership between the skipper Eoin Morgan and Tripathi which steadied the ship and got KKR right back into the game. A partnership of 66 runs set the foundation for the victory and despite the wickets of Tripathi and Andre Russell, KKR were within touching distance of the target. Eoin Morgan remained unbeaten on 47 and played some delightful shots in the process. Eventually, they reached the target in the 17th over. 

Earlier in the day, it was Eoin Morgan who won the toss and opted to bowl. The Narendra Modi Stadium at Ahmedabad had produced some square turners in the Test matches against England. The spinners also got some purchase during the limited-overs series as well. The decision to chase proved to be a masterstroke in the end. 

KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal shared a 36-run stand but an exceptional opening spell from Shivam Mavi put the brakes on Punjab. It was his impressive bowling that eventually led to the downfall of Rahul in the final over of the powerplay. He was dismissed in an attempt to improve the scoring rate. Chris Gayle also fell in quick succession and Mavi finally got the wicket that he deserved. 

Deepak Hooda who came into the match on the back of some good form had to depart early slicing a full delivery outside off straight to the point fielder Morgan. Some exceptional middle overs by Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy never really allowed the Punjab Kings to press on the accelerator. 

They could never really hit the big shots until Chris Jordan came into the crease and smacked a quickfire 30 of 18 deliveries which included one four and three sixes. Eventually, it was his breezy knock that helped Punjab get past the 120-mark. 

Now let us have a look at the Hits and Flops of the match. 

HITS

Prasidh Krishna 

This young fast bowler has been a find for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the last three years and it has been his performance from the Purple brigade which has also earned him a place in the national team. Once again Krishna showed his worth for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 21st match of the tournament against the Punjab Kings as he returned with figures of 3/30. 

Krishna was introduced into the attack in the 8th over and it paid dividends right away. He conceded one run in the first three deliveries before bagging the wicket of Depak Hooda on the 4th delivery. It was a fullish length delivery just outside off and Deepak Hooda played away from the body and ended up slicing it straight to Eoin Morgan at point and he completed the catch with utmost ease.  

Prasidh started off the 10th over with some good deliveries but ended up conceding a wide and a six on the 5th delivery of the over and ended up conceding 10. He was removed from the attack only to be brought back in the 18th over. It was a sensational over from Prasidh as he mixed up his full paced deliveries and the slower ones to perfection. Three runs in the 18th over were quite exceptional from the speedster. 

Prasidh Krishna got some treatment in the final over as he bowled two loose deliveries and was smashed out of the ground by Chris Jordan. However, he bounced back strongly with a well-disguised slower delivery castling Jordan with the change of pace. 

Sunil Narine 

When Narine was bought by the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2011 edition, he was a magician who just stormed into the scene with deliveries that were never seen before. He used to bowl both leg break and off-break with the same grip which made scoring against him extremely difficult for even top-class batsmen. 

However, with time, the bite slowly started going down especially after he was reported for a suspect action. He never looked the same Sunil Narine but against the Punjab Kings, he reminded the viewers what he is capable of. Narine was quite exceptional in the 21st match of the competition finishing with figures of 2/22 in his allotted 4 overs. 

Morgan introduced Narine in the 4th over and he was greeted into the attack with a boundary from the blade of KL Rahul. He bowled well in the remaining five deliveries conceding just three runs. 

He was removed from the attack and was brought back in the 12th over when the Punjab Kings were trying to steady the ship after losing some quick wickets. He bowled a sensational over bagging the wicket of Mayank Agarwal and conceding just three runs. 

Narine bowled a back of a length office which stopped on the surface a bit and Mayank ended up hitting this uppishly down the cow corner. It seemed a difficult chance of Rahul Tripathi but he came running in and clung onto a stunner. 

The first delivery of the 14th over was one of the finest deliveries of the day. He invited Moises Henriques into the off-drive but the drift was just enough to beat the defence of Henriques and the stumps were disturbed. 

The way he controlled the middle overs along with Varun Chakravarthy prevented the Punjab Kings from scoring big. He went onto concede 9 runs in his final over of the quota to finish with impressive figures of 2/22 in 4. 

Eoin Morgan 

The English skipper who brought about a revolution for the English limited-overs team finally managed to weave his magic in the IPL both as a leader and a batsman. 

The southpaw was due for runs and needed to lead from the front foot for his team to claw their way back into the tournament. He handled his troops very well and the bowling changes worked wonders for KKR. 

Chasing a below-par target of 124, Morgan needed to steady the ship for the Kolkata Knight Riders after they lost three early wickets. With the score reading 17/3, Morgan and Rahul Tripathi resurrected the run-chase with a 66 runs partnership. 

Morgan paced his innings to perfection and smashed the boundaries whenever the required rate neared run a ball. He cut and pulled to perfection and some of his execution oozed class. 

The southpaw remained unbeaten on 47 off 40 deliveries which was laced with 4 fours and a couple of sixes. Eventually, an unbeaten partnership of 28 runs with Dinesh Karthik sealed the deal for the two-time champions. 

Special Mention

Shivam Mavi narrowly missed out on this list despite a sensational opening spell but due to Sunil Narine’s impact in the match, he got the nod ahead of Mavi. The speedster bowled the opening over of the match and looked in good rhythm right from the word go. He bowled the hard lengths and had both Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul in some sorts of trouble. 

He finally managed to bag the prized wicket of Chris Gayle despite the onfield decision going in favour of the batting team. It was a full delivery outside off and Gayle slashed hard at it only to find an under edge which was safely grabbed by Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps. 

The umpire nodded his head but Karthik was sure and insisted Morgan to go for the review, It proved to be a masterstroke as there was a clear spike on the ultra-edge. Two more impressive overs followed as Mavi finished with figures of 1/13 in his 4 overs spell.

Flops 

Mayank Agarwal

This was a close call not picking his opening partner KL Rahul and including him despite scoring 31. However, the timing of his dismissal proved to be crucial in the context of the game and eventually allowed Punjab to just get to a score of 123 in their allotted 20 overs. 

He began his innings with a streaky six of Pat Cummins in the second over of the match. Cummins bowled a good back of a length delivery and Mayank was hurried with the pace. It got a bit big on him and ended up top-edging well over the deep third man fielder for a six. 

He never managed to get going as Shivam Mavi and the spinners bowled brilliantly and never allowed Mayank to score freely in the powerplay. KL Rahul was dismissed in the final over of the powerplay in a bid to up the ante. Agarwal struggled his ay to 31 of 33 deliveries before perishing at the hands of Sunil Narine. A short-arm jab carried to Rahul Tripathi at the cow corner as he came running in and completed a blinder. 

Nicholas Pooran 

There was no other option but to include Nicholas Pooran in the list. With the sort of hype he created before the start of the tournament, Pooran was expected to be one of the game-changers for the Punjab Kings. 

However, his returns so far in the tournament have been abysmal. After failing to trouble the scorers in three of the first four games, Pooran was castled by Varun Chakravarthy in the 15th over after scoring a run a ball 19. 

The southpaw started off well with a mighty six but couldn’t quite smash the boundaries on a consistent basis. He didn’t look comfortable in the middle and was eventually cleaned up by Chakravarthy. The left-handed batsman went for an ugly swipe down the leg side but ended up missing the line and his stumps were dislodged. 

With that comfortable win, KKR and their captain Eoin Morgan will look to leave the horrors of Chennai in the past and build towards their bid to the top four spot after a streaky start to the tournament. The wealth of experience that KKR have, should ideally help them going forward, given they get their calls right. They play a crucial game against Delhi Capitals next up on April 29, who have just won a super over thriller against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the tournament. Beating Delhi would mean that KKR have finally arrived into the tournament and will send a big message to the top of the pile who at the moment sit at a comfortable distance from the rest of the competition.

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