IPL 2018: 3 KXIP players who flopped against KKR

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Kings XI Punjab clashed with the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Holkar Stadium in Indore yesterday. Put into bat first, Kolkata Knight Riders amassed a massive total of 245/6 in their allocated 20 overs. This was largely due to some breathtaking strokeplay by Sunil Narine (75 off 36) and skipper Dinesh Karthik, who blazed his way to 50 off 23 balls towards the latter half of the innings.

In reply, Kings XI got off to a good start thanks to their openers Chris Gayle and KL Rahul. But 2 wickets in successive deliveries from Andre Russell in the 6th over changed the course of the match. In the end, Kings XI Punjab managed to reach 214/8, falling short by 31 runs.

Let us look at 3 KXIP players who flopped miserably in the game:

#3 Ravi Ashwin

Young KXIP sensation, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, was injured in the 4th over when he tried to sway away from a fierce straight hit from Sunil Narine. The bowler got hit on his right hand which resulted in an injury, forcing him to go off the field. Skipper Ashwin took up the responsibility of completing the over. To his surprise, Narine greeted him with a six over long on and then followed it up by smashing a boundary straight down the ground.

Once the power play was done, Ashwin brought himself back into the attack. But he found himself once again at the receiving end as both Robin Uthappa and Narine clobbered him for boundaries at regular intervals. Uthappa, in particular, was very severe on the off-spinner as he peppered the legside field.

On a flat deck, where variation was the need of the hour, Ashwin kept pitching the ball up and had to pay the price. By the end of KKR's innings, his bowling figures read 2.4-0-36-0, which is a very poor effort.

Although the off-spinner made amends with the bat by scoring 45 runs off just 22 deliveries, it was too little too late as the damage had already been done.

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