Highlights:
- KKR defeats PBKS by 5 wickets and 20 balls to spare
- A captain’s performance by Eoin Morgan help KKR cruise towards victory
- Watch Ravi Bishnoi’s “Catch Of The Tournament”
- Kolkata Knight Riders won their second game of IPL 2021
Kolkata Knight Riders’ skipper Eoin Morgan brought in a sense of calm after the early jitters sustained by his side and did not let a brilliant bowling performance go in vain during their easy five-wicket victory over Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter on Monday night.
After the bowlers from KKR put up a splendid show restricting PBKS to 123/9, KKR scored the runs in mere 16.4 overs with skipper Morgan remaining unbeaten inning of 47 off of 40 balls.
For KKR, it was a collective bowling performance of Prasidh Krishna (3/30), Pat Cummins (2/31) and Sunil Narine (2/22) who successfully choked Punjab after the young Shivam Mavi (1/13) bowled an astounding 15 dot balls in his four-over spell.
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KKR have now successfully ended their four-match losing streak and now rank 5th on the IPL 2021 points table with four points from six games.
PBKS slipped a notch behind and are now placed at rank 6.
Chasing a humble target on a dew-laden Motera, KKR found themselves in familiar territory as they lost top-three with just 17 runs on the scoreboard in under three overs. But Morgan, who hit 4 boundaries and 2 maximums, showed perfect intent to seize control with Rahul Tripathi in a 66-run partnership off 48 balls as KKR sealed the issue in 16.4 overs to return to winning ways.
Morgan pulled Shami over the square to get off the mark with a maximum and did not look back thereafter. He along with Tripathi used their feet and kept charging the PBKS bowlers as they just needed 48 runs in the final-10.
Tripathi failed to finish it after an impressive 32-ball 41 as there was a bit of a blip with Andre Russell departing in addition of 15 runs but Morgan and Dinesh Karthik made sure there is no further damage to cruise home with 20 balls left to spare.
Earlier, Nitish Rana got out on a duck in the first over, gifting his wicket to Moises Henriques, chipping a wide full toss straight to Shahrukh Khan at the cover. Additionally, the Indian cricket’s blue-eyed boy, Shubman Gill, continued his distasteful run after showing some glimpses of his class, trapped by Mohammed Shami.
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Ravi Bishnoi soon produced a spectacular diving catch, sprinting about 30 metres to dismiss Sunil Narine for a duck.
#RaviBishnoi Un-Believ-able catch
— Dais World (@world_dais) April 27, 2021
Is that the Catch of the Tournament??
???#IPL2021 pic.twitter.com/f7fprwHb6d
Earlier in the game, youngster Mavi started it all as he was tying things down with the new ball, bowling 15 dot balls in his four overs, before Cummins and Krishna tightened the noose on PBKS sharing five wickets between them at the death.