IPL 2019, Match 6: 3 Unnoticed things from KKR vs KXIP match
With the hope to continue their winning streak, the Kings XI Punjab and the Kolkata Knight Riders took the field in the 6th game of the Indian Premier League's season 12 at the iconic Eden Gardens.
The Knight Riders' opened their batting with Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn; whilst Mohammed Shami opened the attack for Punjab. The first over, saw the KKR openers trying to explore the condition and the pitch, as they scored just one run off that over. Ravichandran Ashwin then decided to take a risk and asked the debutant Varun Chakravarthy to bowl the second over. Sunil Narine, who was batting at that time, grabbed this opportunity with both hands and whacked 25 runs off the over.
Both the openers were soon dismissed after providing the team, a fiery start. Nitish Rana and Robin Uthappa continued this momentum and built an excellent partnership of 120 runs. After a great start, which was followed by a terrific partnership in the middle overs, the hosts just needed a perfect finishing touch. Andre Russel did exactly what his team needed; as the Carribean all-rounder played yet another cracking knock of 48 runs in just 17 balls. This helped KKR to post a staggering target of 219 runs in 20 overs.
Chasing a mammoth target, KXIP did not get off to a great start. KL Rahul was dismissed in the second over and was followed by the wicket of the dangerous-looking Chris Gayle not long after. Sarfaraz Khan too departed soon after Gayle's wicket and Punjab were 77/3 by the end of 10 overs; needing 142 runs off the last 60 balls. From there, Mayank Agarwal and David Miller tried to create hopes for the red army fans as they started to do damage from both ends. However, after Mayank's wicket, they could not recover and eventually lost the match by 6 wickets.
Here are some unnoticed things from the match.
#1 Mandeep Singh bowls for the first time in IPL
One of the main reasons behind KXIP's defeat was the captaincy of Ravichandran Ashwin. The Tamil Nadu off-spinner first gave the ball to young debutant Varun Chakravarthy in the second over and then asked Mandeep Singh, to bowl against the in-form Nitish Rana in the 12th over. Mandeep was bowling for the first time in the IPL and not surprisingly was thrashed for 18 runs by Rana.
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