Mohali: Kolkata Knight Riders stayed in contention to make the last available spot for the VIVO IPL 2019 Playoffs, but ended Kings XI Punjab’s hopes with a handsome seven-wicket victory in Mohali on Friday night. Needing a tough 184 for victory after electing to field, KKR were powered by a fluent half-century from opener Shubman Gill, who stayed not out on 65 to steer his side to victory with 12 balls to spare.
KKR were given a solid start by openers Gill and Chris Lynn, who powered the side to 62 in the Powerplay, with Lynn falling off the last ball of the sixth over, before he had smacked 46 from just 22 balls. R Ashwin and Mohammed Shami took the wickets of Robbie Uthappa (22 off 14 balls) and Andre Russell (24 off 14 balls) respectively, but couldn’t find any more breakthroughs as captain Dinesh Karthik finished off the game with a rapid 21* from just 9 balls.
Earlier, after being put into bat, Kings XI Punjab suffered early setbacks with both openers KL Rahul and Chris Gayle departing without making much of an impact on a must-win game for the home side. KKR’s opening bowler Sandeep Warrier made both breakthroughs – Rahul was caught expertly by Chris Lynn running back at mid-on while chatting with television commentators, while Gayle picked out Shubman Gill at the midwicket boundary in his next over.
It wasn’t until the arrival of wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran that KXIP managed to get some momentum into their innings. Pooran displayed some of his attacking prowess against both pace and spin, and added 69 runs for the third wicket with Mayank Agarwal, who barely got strike during their partnership. What once looked like opportunity lost, KXIP made up for it through handy contributions from their middle order.
Pooran fell for a 27-ball 48, Agarwal added 36 from 26, before Mandeep Singh and Sam Curran belted handy boundaries towards the end to take KXIP’s total to a competitive 183-6, including Harry Gurney’s 20th over in which Curran took 22 runs to bring up a half-century off 23 balls.
Standout batting performance
Shubman Gill has risen tremendously in stature all through the 2019 VIVO IPL, and after essaying the role of a finisher in earlier fixtures, he has flourished in his role as an opener. Gill was seldom hurried into his strokes even on Friday evening, driving calmly and picking gaps for boundaries instead of muscling the ball like his peers. Gill raced to his half-century off just 36 balls, and played the support role when the likes of Russell and Karthik were at the crease, easing the ball into gaps to rotate the strike. Still only 19, Gill has shown maturity beyond his years and produced his third half-century this season to take his side home.
The only other significant contribution Sam Curran had made to the Kings XI Punjab’s cause came on his VIVO IPL debut against Delhi Capitals when he had scored 20 with the bat and taken 4-11 with the ball – including a hat-trick – to spark an emphatic come-from-behind victory. After missing a few fixtures, Curran returned to make an immediate impact.
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