RECAP
Follow UsNarine, Salt’s blistering start
In another blistering start, Sunil Narine and Phil Salt added 76 runs in the powerplay. Punjab Kings dropped both the openers in that phase. Later, Salt and Narine extended their partnership to 138. It is the first 100-run opening stand for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) since 2017. Narine was part of the previous 100-run stand as well, with Chris Lynn.
The Narine-Salt stand paved the way for KKR to put 261 on board.
Prabhsimran sets the tone
For Punjab, Prabhsimran Singh set the tone with an 18-ball fifty in the powerplay. He was out off the last ball of the sixth over but had set the tone. Punjab Kings (PBKS) were 69/0 in five overs out of which 54 were scored by Prabhsimran alone.
Bairstow hits form
Jonny Bairstow in IPL 2024 before today (April 26):
6 innings, 96 runs, 131.5 strike rate
Jonny Bairstow today:
108 runs, strike rate 225
Bairstow was 12 off 10 at one stage. He then belted Anukul Roy’s second over (sixth of the innings) for 24 runs off five deliveries. Thereon, it was one-way traffic as Bairstow finished 108 not out from 48 deliveries, hitting eight fours and nine sixes. You could see the fire in his eyes when he completed his ton.
Shashank’s six-hitting madness
Shashank Singh added 84 not out off 37 balls with Bairstow for the third wicket. Shashank’s contribution was 68 off 28 in the partnership. He scored 48 of them in sixes. His power-packed batting raced Punjab to the highest successful run chase in T20 history with eight balls to spare.
Narine’s all-round show in vain, again
Sunil Narine clobbered 71 from 32 balls with the bat and scored a direct hit to run Prabhsimran out and in a match where the average run rate was 13.6, he conceded at only 6 RPO. Yet, he finished on the losing side. Narine suffered the same agony against Rajasthan Royals (RR) as well.
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