IPL 2023 Live Blog: PBKS vs KKR, Match 2 - Tweets, Videos and More
Punjab Kings won by seven runs via DLS method (Source: Twitter/iplt20.com)
7:57 PM | So, that's the end of the live coverage as far as this match is concerned. However, there's another game happening. Join us there and stay tuned to OneCricket.
Punjab Kings won by seven runs (DLS method)
7:55 PM | With 192 runs needed to win, Kolkata Knight Riders lost the plot initially. However, the innings was put back on the right track by Venkatesh Iyer and Nitish Rana.
Although Punjab continued to chip in with wickets, Andre Russell fired a 19-ball 35 that could have proven to be even more lethal if not for Sam Curran.
While Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur were also coming good with the bat with KKR needing 46 runs off four overs, rain made its presence felt as Kolkata lost the match by seven runs on DLS method.
For the Kings, Arshdeep Singh was their star-performer in the second innings as he claimed a three-for.
7:52 PM | That's it. That's the match. Punjab Kings win by seven runs (DLS method)
7:45 PM | Rain has not subsided. It's highly improbable for the match to restart now.
7:25 PM | If the match does not resume by 7:54 PM, overs will reduce by the rate of one every four minutes.
7:17 PM | Rain has gotten heavier. Players are going off. KKR are behind by seven runs as per the DLS.
KKR are not giving up. Narine joins the party and brings the target down by six runs. 46 runs needed off four overs now.
Sunil Narine is out in the middle.
Arshdeep Singh celebrates after taking Venkatesh Iyer's wicket. Again a short ball does the trick.
Shardul Thakur announces his arrival in some style. A first-ball maximum for him.
The big man is gone... Curran digs in short. Russell goes for the pull could not get the desired connection and gets caught. Is that the game?
Power and finesse. Russell is doing it all. First, hammers a six over long-on and then just deft touches to bring up a four.
7:06 PM | It's drizzling out there...
Time-out!
Although Venkatesh misses out on the second free-hit, he maximized the previous one. KKR need 74 runs off six overs with five wickets in hands.
7:00 PM | What is Ellis doing.... Has bowled two no-balls in the over.
Dropped!!! Ellis hurries Russell. The batter miscues the pull but Prabhsimran Singh at fine leg fails to grab the catch.
The West Indian is rollicking. Hits it just past the mid-off for a four.
Russell picks up a length delivery and hits it straight for a six.
6:51 PM | Tight over despite a Russell four. Just eight off it.
Harpreet Brar is in the attack.
Huge cheers from the crowd as Andre Russell walks in to bat.
Rinku Singh perishes. Rahul Chahar causes his dismissal. The batter plays a sweep against the turn and gets holed out at deep mid-wicket.
Aayush: Just when KKR were looking to gain the upper hand, Raza drags back the game for PBKS. Kolkata's score reads 80/4 at the 10-over mark.
Rinku Singh is KKR's no.6.
Maiden IPL wicket for the Raza. He bowls a bit short. Rana plays the cut only to get caught at backward point.
6:36 PM | A strategic break has been taken.
Aayush: Impact Player Rishi Dhawan gets smacked for 15 runs in his first over.
KKR skipper is leading the charge. Picks the length so early and bludgeons a six via a pull shot.
Rana throws the kitchen sink at it. Luck goes his away. Edges to the deep third-man for a four.
Rishi Dhawan to bowl his first over.
Rana goes unorthodox. Brings the switch hit out and adds four more runs to KKR's total.
6:27 PM | Ellis concedes just four runs in his second over. KKR are 50/3 after seven overs.
Raza strays it down the leg as Venkatesh just pushes it on its away for a four. Then, he goes to the other side and accumulate another cracking boundary. KKR are 46/3 at the end of the powerplay.
Sikandar Raza will bowl the final powerplay over.
Nitish Rana is up and running. Glances a ball to the leg side for a four.
KKR skipper Nitish Rana joins Venkatesh Iyer.
Nathan Ellis comes in to the attack knocks off the timber. Gurbaz advances down but could not get bat to ball. Punjab Kings are right on top.
Lucky boundary for Gurbaz. Did not target that area but eventually gets the ball placed just wide of the short third-man fielder.
As expected, Venkatesh Iyer is KKR's Impact Player. He replaces Varun Chakravarthy.
The promotion does not work. Arshdeep allows Anukul Roy no room as he finds the hands of the mid-wicket fielder. Two in the over for the Punjab pacer.
And he muscles the ball straight over mid-on for a four. WOW!
Anukul Roy is the new batter.
What a way to start an IPL season!!! Mandeep Singh gets done away by the pace. Heaves the ball the air and gets caught at deep square leg. A wicket on the first ball for Arshdeep Singh.
Arshdeep Singh will bowl from the other end.
A 101-metre six by Rahmanullah Gurbaz on his KKR debut. Backs that up with a boundary. 13 runs come off the first over.
A missed run-out opportunity. A direct hit would have ended Mandeep Singh's innings.
5:50 PM | The players are in readiness. Let the chase begin.
Start of second innings delayed due to bad light.
5:35 PM | There has been a delay. Players are waiting for the lights to come on. They are going off now.
Alright! We have our first Impact Player of the match. Punjab Kings slots in Rishi Dhawan in Bhanuka Rajapaksa's place.
5:27 PM | The run-chase is starting. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mandeep Singh are opening for KKR. Sam Curran has the bowl in hand.
Aayush: KKR's batting line-up looks thin on paper. Venkatesh Iyer may come in as the Impact Player.
5:14 PM | After a horrible start, Kolkata Knight Riders have done well to restrict Punjab Kings under 200 runs. Prabhsimran Singh got Punjab off to a flyer. Then, the 86-run partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, who scored a fifty, pushed Kolkata further back.
However, Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy bowled economical spells while also claiming a wicket each as PBKS ended up 191/5.
Punjab Kings finish the innings at 191/5
Southee pays the price for bowling a slower ball. Curran connects it well and sends it over the ropes. Good final over for Punjab.
Shahrukh again powers a full delivery to extra cover and fetches a four.
5:09 PM | Punjab Kings might end up atleast 15 runs short here. At one stage, they were easily cruising over 200 runs.
Width on offer. Shahrukh Khan bends a bit to get under a full ball and drives it for a boundary.
Shahrukh Khan comes out to bat.
Massive wicket for the Knights. Tries to make room but could not held of the ball. Loses his shape and gets caught near the in-field. Narine bags his first wicket of the match.
4:58 PM | Varun Chakravarthy ends his four-over spell. Despite getting hammered for a six on the final ball, he gives away just 26 runs and took an all-important wicket of Shikhar Dhawan.
Fascinating
Curran shimmies down the pitch and hits it big over long-on. First six of the season for him.
Time-out!
It was right in the slot and Raza, who takes full advantage of it, and sends the ball in the crowd.
Livingstone cheering for his teammates
Aayush: It will be interesting to see how the highest-bidded IPL player go about his innings. He must start the hitting engine right from the start.
Sam Curran is in at no.5.
Skipper Dhawan departs. Chakravarthy strikes. The leggie fires it in. Gabbar misses the line as the ball crashes on to the stumps.
Sikandar faces first ball in his IPL debut and whips it fine for a classic four.
Six and Out! After Southee gets pummeled, he takes the revenge and sends Jitesh Packing. Brilliant knock, nonetheless.
Too slow and short. Jitesh does not miss out on that and plays a pull to collect a four.
Aayush: KKR finishing Umesh's four overs. They know he can be smacked for quite a few in the death overs.
Jitesh goes down town for a maximum. Narine again gets too full in his length.
Jitesh Sharma is the new batter.
High, high, high in the air!!! Fielder under it and takes the catch. Bhanuka hits the ball straight to long-on soon after scoring a half-century. Umesh Yadav provides the breakthrough.
50 up for Bhanuka Rajapaksa in only 30 deliveries.
Umesh gets smacked for a four right away in his second-spell by Dhawan.
4:20 PM | At the 10-over mark, Punjab are at 100/1. First 200 of the season is certainly on the cards.
Dhawan shifting the gears. Chakravarthy bowls short-pitch delivery and gets treated with a boundary.
Dhawan takes full-toss of a full toss. That's a four and it's also a no-ball. Shardul is under the pump.
Rajapaksa guides the ball to the right of the short third-man fielder and gathers another boundary.
Poor fielding by Chakravarthy. Rajapaksa sweeps the ball to the left of Chakravarthy, who fails to collect it. Four extra runs for Punjab Kings.
50-run partnership between Dhawan and Rajapaksa.
4:05 PM | Umpire signals for a strategic time-out.
The Sri Lankan is teeing off. Welcomes Shardul Thakur with a four and a six to take Punjab to 69/1 after seven overs.
Shardul Thakur to bowl his first over.
Rajapaksa gets on the back-foot and slams the ball that races to the mid-wicket boundary like a tracer-bullet. An otherwise good over by Varun Chakravarthy yields just six runs. KKR are 56/1 at the end of the powerplay.
Bhanuka joins the run-fest. Plays two lifted drives to gather two fours. Then, goes straight and tonks a freewheeling six.
KKR brings in Sunil Narine to the attack.
Two consecutive boundaries for Dhawan as he plays two cracking cut shots. Southee is still wayward in his line.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa joins Dhawan.
Southee has the last laugh. Another poor ball from the New Zealand. Prabhsimran tries to tickle it towards fine leg but could not get all of it and gives an easy catch to the wicket-keeper.
Prabhsimran on the charge
He takes on Tim Southee now. Whips a poor leg-side delivery for a four, goes down the ground to gets a similar result. Then, hammers a good length ball over deep mid-wicket for another maximum.
Prabhsimran gets into action straightaway. Umesh swings the bowl in. The Punjab batter plays a nonchalant flick and clears the boundary.
3:29 PM | Players have walked out in the field. Shikhar Dhawan and Prabhsimran Singh will open for the Kings. Umesh Yadav will kick-start the show for the Riders.
IPL debut for Raza
Aayush: KKR and PBKS will field with four foreigners in their initial XIs and therefore, cannot pick David Wiese and Matthew Short as their Impact Players. Then, why are they included as the options?
Because only an Impact Player candidate can be used as a substitute fielder.
Impact Players
Punjab Kings: Rishi Dhawan, Matthew Short, Mohit Rathee, Atharva Taide, Harpreet Bhatia
Kolkata Knight Riders: Suyash Sharma, Venkatesh Iyer, David Wiese, Narayan Jagadeesan, Vaibhav Arora
Rain threat?
Aayush: No Venkatesh Iyer in KKR's starting XI is a surprise. He is among the five Impact Players options but still not many predicted Kolkata will open with Mandeep Singh.
Playing XIs
Punjab Kings: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prabhsimran Singh, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shahrukh Khan, Sam Curran, Sikandar Raza, Nathan Ellis, Arshdeep Singh, Rahul Chahar, Harpreet Brar
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI: Mandeep Singh, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Nitish Rana (c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Anukul Roy, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy
Shikhar Dhawan (Punjab Kings captain): We would have fielded first. Just because we have got the impact player rule, getting him at the second innings to bat could have been good. My team preparation has been very good. We are looking forward to a great season ahead. To win the trophy, and as a leader I would like to lead from the front. Whatever we have done, to keep the consistency has been great during the net sessions. Our four overseas are - Bhanuka, Sam Curran, Nathan Ellis, and I'll skip the fourth name for the moment [forgets].
Nitish Rana (Kolkata Knight Riders Captain): We will bowl first here. There has been a rain around for the last two days and hence want to know the target we chasing. Not really, I haven't been under pressure. Overseas players are Tim Southee, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
Toss update
Kolkata Knight Riders opt to bowl
Pitch Report (Daren Ganga): We had to wait for almost four years before the IPL returns to this magnificent venue Mohali. It's time for Punjab Kings vs Kolkata Knight Riders. Interestingly KKR have dominated this dual rivalry. The average first innings score in afternoon matches is 159, nine runs less than that of night matches and that's interesting. And 80% of the matches have been won by the team chasing. Most of them have to do with the moisture on the surface. But what is on offer today? It is light brown in colour and that tells me that there isn't a lot of moisture on it. If you hear the sound of my punch to the pitch, then it looks hard. So it will be even for the teams batting first and batting second. Quite an even surface, with a nice covering of grass as well. It has a good facility.
Fantasy tips
2:40 PM | Toss coming up in 20 minutes...
Gear up Sadda Squad
PBKS vs KKR: Head-to-head
Punjab vs Kolkata might not have been the most decorative rivalry, but they have had one of the most scintillating clashes in the league's history. Last season, they met just once when Russell's gung-ho show with the bat took the game away from Punjab, which has also been the story of PBKS vs KKR clashes over the years.
Out of the 30 matches between them, the Kings have won 20 games, while the Knights have 10 wins in their kitty.
Player-to-player battles
Both KKR and PBKS have world-class all-rounders in their lineup, i.e. Sam Curran and Andre Russell. In T20 cricket, undoubtedly, Dre Russ is far more impactful than his Punjab opposite number. However, with Curran at the dawn of his career, the KKR veteran is now just a mere shadow of his supreme past.
If Kolkata have the wily Sunil Narine, Punjab will be roaring with young Rahul Chahar being in their force. Of course, comparing Narine and Chahar won't be a fair practice, but a lot will depend on how these two wizards perform in Mohali.
Punjab vs Kolkata - Derby of two new skippers
Punjab's Gabbar Shikhar Dhawan will lead his army of 'Kings' in the clash against his state team 'Bandhu' Nitish Rana's Knights as the two teams meet at Mohali's IS Bindra Stadium. And these two newly-tinted captains will look to race off their respective campaigns with a victory.
Welcome to OneCricket's Live Blog of Indian Premier League's Match 2. The IPL is already up and running. Today, we have two blockbusters of games to showcase, and the party will begin with Punjab Kings versus Kolkata Knight Riders.
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