Days are passing but the woes of Kings XI Punjab are still continuing. They lost yet another match in this season and this time, it was against Kolkata Knight Riders. In a thriller of a game, Punjab lost this match by two runs. Once again, KKR pulled off a victory from no where. Though KL Rahul (71) and Mayank Agarwal (56) shined, they failed to give a win for KXIP. Earlier, Shubman Gill (57) and Dinesh Karthik (58) performed well for KKR and gave them a respectable score of 164.
KKR’s captain Dinesh Karthik won the toss and chose to bat first. They got a disappointing start as the opener Rahul Tripathi fell in the third over. In the very next over, Rana got out as well. Later, Shubman Gill and Morgan built a partnership of 49 runs and settled the innings. After Morgan’s departure, Dinesh Karthik joined Gill and made another good partnership of 82 runs. With these sensible knocks, KKR managed to score 164 in 20 overs.
Punjab got a great start while chasing this modest total. Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul, who are considered as best openers of this season, once again did the job for their team. They were in attacking mode right from the beginning and never gave a chance to KKR bowlers to pick up wickets. In the process, they have also completed their respective half-centuries. Finally, Mayank fell in the 15th over bowled by Prasidh Krishna. In the 18th over, Sunil Narine sent Nicholas Pooran back to the pavilion. Punjab needed 7 runs off the last bowl. However, Glenn Maxwell managed to hit a four and Punjab ended their innings at 162/5.
Scorecard:
Kolkata Knight Riders: 164/6 (D Karthik 58, S Gill 57, A Singh 1/25)
Kings XI Punjab: 162/5 (KL Rahul 71, M Agarwal 56, P Krishna 3/29)