Advertisement

Chahal and Jansen lead Punjab to record victory over Knight Riders

football15 April 2025 17:45| ยฉ MWP
By:Neil Manthorp
Share

Yuzvendra Chahal and Marco Jansen starred for the Punjab Kings as they defended the lowest total in IPL history to beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by an extraordinary 16 runs having been bowled out for just 111 in 15.3 overs in their IPL match at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium in Chandigarh on Tuesday.

Having dismissed the home side for just 111 the run-chase was beset by nerves after the early dismissals of openers Quinton de Kock (2) and Sunil Narine (5) who was bowled by Jansen who also claimed the final wicket to finish with 3-17 from 3.1 overs.

But it was veteran legspinner, Chahal (4-28), who changed the course of the match.

KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane (17) was lbw missing a sweep against the brilliant Chahal and top scorer Angkrish Raghuvanshi (37) chipped a drive to cover.

When Venkatesh Iyer (7) was trapped lbw by Glenn Maxwell (2-0-5-1) the tension was palpable at 74-5 in the 11th over but nothing compared to what happened in the 12th when Chahal claimed two wickets in as many balls to reduce the innings to a scarcely believable 76-7.

Rinku Singh (2) was flummoxed by yet another Chahal googly to be stumped by Aussie Josh Inglis and new man, Ramandeep Singh, paddle-swept the next delivery straight into the hands of Shreyas Iyer at short fine leg.

Andre Russell powered KKR back into contention with two sixes over midwicket and a slapped four through the covers in Chahalโ€™s final over to bring the equation down to 17 runs from the final six overs, but with just two wickets remaining.

Number 10, Vaibhav Arora, gloved a bouncer from Arshdeep Singh to โ€˜keeper Inglis and Russellโ€™s desperate swing at Jansen in the 16th over resulted in a bottom edge into his stumps to leave everyone โ€“ including the bowling side โ€“ evidently stunned at what had transpired.

AMBITION AND MISCALCULATION

Earlier the Punjab innings was a flurry of ambition and miscalculation after an opening stand of 39 in just three overs which promised so much more.

Opener Priyansh Arya (22 from 12 balls) was caught on the square leg boundary and captain Shreyas followed soon afterwards slicing seamer Harshit Rana (3-25) to backward point.

Prabhsimran Singh (30 off 15) showed no signs of the disaster which was to follow when he, too, sliced a drive against Harshit to backward point where Ramandeep Singh held his third catch shortly after Australian Josh Inglis had missed an airy sweep against legspinner Varun Chakravarthy (2-21) to be bowled for just two.

Maxwellโ€™s horror start to the tournament continued when he was utterly bamboozled and bowled by Chakravarthyโ€™s googly for seven from 10 balls and Impact Player, Suryansh Shedge (4), edged mystery spinner Sunil Narine into โ€˜keeper De Kockโ€™s gloves.

The last hope of a (realistically) competitive total lay with Jansen (1) who strode down the wicket to whip Narine (2-14) through the onside but yorked himself and was bowled leaving the innings in tatters at 86-8 after just 11 overs.

But the tatters proved to be more than enough for a stunning, extraordinary and memorable victory.

The result moves the Punjab Kings back into the top four of the log with four wins and eight points from their six matches leaving KKR languishing in the nether regions with just three wins and six points from seven matches.

PUNJAB KINGS: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Josh Inglis (wk), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank singh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcon Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Quinton de Kock (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Anrich Nortje, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakravarthy

Advertisement