IPL 2018, KKR vs KXIP: Andrew Tye's death bowling is SK Turning Point
As Andrew Tye ran down to bowl the 16th over of Kolkata Knight Riders' innings, the home team were cruising at 146/3 with Chris Lynn at his brilliant best and accompanying the Australian was skipper Dinesh Karthik. With the likes of Andre Russell, Shubman Gill and Tom Curran to follow, KKR looked set to post a total in the vicinity of 220.
However, as it turned out, they could manage only 191 by the end of it. On the second delivery of the over, a knuckleball from Tye saw his compatriot, Lynn bottom-edge it to the keeper. Russell, who has been scoring runs for fun this year, walked out to loud cheers from the crowd.
The crowd, though, was silenced by the right-arm bowler as he conceded just one run in his next four deliveries, three of which were bowled to the West Indian all-rounder. Russell did flex his muscles in the next over and so did Gill and Karthik in the next couple of overs as the Kolkata-based franchise got to 186 by the 19th over.
KKR were still looking good enough to touch the 200-mark when Tye was brought in by Ravichandran Ashwin to bowl the last over. The Australian bagged Curran's wicket and gave away only five runs, including a wide, to restrict KKR to 191.
While Tye had conceded runs at an economy of over 11 in the first half of his spell, the second half saw him give away seven runs and bag a couple of wickets as well. He finished with figures of 4-0-30-2, allowing the Punjab openers to carry on the momentum.
The total of 191 was brought down to 125 (13 overs) after KL Rahul-Chris Gayle pair provided Punjab with a whirlwind start before rain interrupted the proceedings. After the resumption of play, KXIP breached the target and registered a win by nine wickets.
While the West Indian opener was unbeaten with a 38-ball-62 knock, Rahul lost his wicket post the resumption after having scored 60 runs in 27 deliveries.