One of the most remarkable matches in IPL history ended with hosts Punjab Kings successfully defending the lowest total in tournament history, as defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders collapsed to 95 all out in pursuit of a target of 112.
Despite the loss of their openers Quinton de Kock and Sunil Narine just eight balls into the chase, KKR were well placed at 72/3 in the tenth over. But then captain Ajinkya Rahane missed a sweep to become the first of four wickets to Yuzvendra Chahal, and KKR lost their last seven wickets for 23 runs.
Had Rahane opted to challenge that lbw decision, he would have survived since replays showed the ball missing the stumps. After the loss, the KKR skipper blamed his dismissal for what happened next.
Raghuvanshi, looking serene on 37, slashed Chahal to backward point. Venkatesh Iyer missed a sweep against Glenn Maxwell. Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh departed in the span of three deliveries in one Chahal over, as the panic set in amongst KKR’s batting.
As long as Andre Russell was there, KKR had hope. The muscular West Indian allrounder took two sixes and a four off Chahal’s fourth over to somewhat dent the bowler’s figures after he’d snared 4/12 in three, but a wicket maiden from Arshdeep Singh, with KKR nine down, ratcheted up the tension.
The asking was 17 four 30 deliveries when Russell fronted up to Marco Jansen at the start of the 16th over, but he proceeded to chop the first ball onto the stumps to cue delirium in the PBKS dugout.
Their head coach, Ricky Ponting, hailed it was “just about the best win I’ve ever had” after PBKS successfully defended the lowest total in IPL history.
This win had been difficult to envision after the home team was bowled out for 111 in 15.3 overs, after the openers put on 39 in 20 balls. Here too, sloppy batting and terrific catching was the recipe. Priyansha Arya (22) and Shreyas Iyer (0) were both caught in the deep by Ramandeep during Harshit Rana’s second over, after which KKR’s spinners Narine and Varun Chakravarthy took two wickets each.
In what was another display of shoddy middle order batting, Maxwell and Nehal Wadhera threw away their wickets before the PBKS management oddly decided to bat the Impact Player Suryansh Shegde ahead of Shashank Singh. All out for 111, it did not seem like PBKS would defend that lowly total, but KKR had other ideas.
