Andre Russell-mania was on full show on the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday as Kolkata Knight Riders edged previous Punjab Kings in an IPL 2023 recreation on the final ball. Chasing a difficult goal of 180, KKR have been 124/4 in 15.2 overs as skipper Nitish Rana departed after scoring a half-century. In got here Andre Russell. The West Indies allrounder was not having a very good time with the bat until the match towards PBKS. But on Monday, the previous Russell once more got here out. He and Rinku Singh repeatedly acquired boundaries as KKR reached 154/4 in 18 overs, needing 26 runs in 12 balls.

Then Russell did what does finest as he smacked three sixes off Sam Curran as KKR acquired 20 runs off the penultimate over. Though Russell fell on 42 (23b) on the fifth ball of the final over, Rinku hit a 4 of the final ball to take KKR over the road.

Dr. Dre is placing on a clinic tonight at Eden Gardens! #KKRvPBKS #IPLonJioCinema #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/K3f12GCmke

— JioCinema (@JioCinema) May 8, 2023

Rinku Singh added one other vibrant chapter to his legend as a “finisher” with a last-ball boundary as Kolkata Knight Riders beat Punjab Kings by 5 wickets on Monday to maintain their IPL play-off hopes alive.
It was an entire ‘RRR’ present by KKR as skipper Nitish Rana’s half-century and Andre Russell including muscle to the chase of 180 enabled Rinku to complete off the sport with a 10-ball-21 not out.

Earlier, Varun Chakravarthy as soon as once more brilliantly spearheaded their bowling division to seize 3/26 as KKR put up a tidy bowling present to limit PBKS to a below-par 179 for seven after the guests opted to bat on a sluggish wicket.

In reply, KKR present batting present was led by Rana’s stellar effort when he promoted himself to No 3 and laid the muse with a 38-ball 51 (6×4, 1×6).

On a wicket the place the odd ball was gripping and batters struggled to seek out their timings, Rana stiched an important fifty-plus stand with Venkatesh Iyer (11) earlier than Andre Russell and Rinku Singh sealed the problem.

With PTI inputs