[ad_1]
In the end, it was a tale of two captains.
KL Rahul led the charge brilliantly from the front, helping Punjab Kings cross the finishing line with a composed 55-ball 67 and keeping his team’s playoff berth alive with a five-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in Dubai on Friday.
AS IT HAPPENED | SCORECARD | POINTS TABLE
Trouble, however, is intensifying for Eoin Morgan. Not only KKR saw their new-found momentum in the second phase of the IPL receive an unexpected jolt at a crucial juncture of their campaign, their captain now looks to be burdened with more questions than answers. It was another flop show from Morgan, who was dismissed by Mohammad Shami for 2 and failed to provide his team the spark after Venkatesh Iyer (67) and Rahul Tripathi (34) set up a good platform for others to flourish on.
Thus, having managed just 44 runs in their last five overs, during which they also lost four wickets, KKR returned to the dressing room thinking they might have fallen short of 15-20 runs short of adding to the total of 165 for 7 as brilliant bowling by Shami (1/23) and Arshdeep Singh (3/32) at the death overs kept Punjab’s flagging hopes alive.
Rahul gave that hope the definite shape, holding the innings together at one end and watch Mayank Agarwal (40), Aiden Markram (18) and Shahrukh Khan (22 no) come up with necessary contributions to keep them afloat in the competition.
KKR, Punjab and Mumbai Indians are all on 10 points each and from now onwards the fight for the fourth playoff berth has become as complicated as it can get.
IPL 2021: Punjab Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders to keep playoff hopes alive
KKR’s strategy of going into the match with no fifth bowler, giving Iyer and Nitish Rana – whose late cameo of 18-ball 31 gave KKR total a semblance of fight – the additional responsibility of rolling their arms over, could be the potential Achilles’ heel. The duo conceded 37 overs in 3.3 overs and otherwise reliable Sunil Narine also failed to check the run-flow in middle overs as Punjab did the needful with Shahrukh sealing the deal with a six off Iyer with three balls to spare.
It was true that Rahul and Shahrukh got the rub of the green, surviving a few dropped catches, but once they positioned themselves with just 35 runs needed off the last 4 overs, Punjab – beginning life without Chris Gayle who decided to leave the camp owing to bio-bubble fatigue were facing just a mound – and not a mountain – to climb.
Earlier, Iyer’s classy 67 and his 68-run second-wicket partnership with Tripathi (34) helped KKR reach 165 for 7 on a pitch which seemed slow and demanded application and adjustments with the pace of the ball from the batsmen.
But the team lacked sparks towards the later part of the innings and Morgan’s horrendous form with the bat proved to be just the sticking point of a disappointing night for the Knights.
[ad_2]
Source link