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Lucknow fightback secures win over Kolkata

rugby08 April 2025 14:20| © MWP
By:Ross Roche
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A superb fightback from the Lucknow Super Giants bowlers helped them hold on for a tight four-run win in a high-scoring IPL clash against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday afternoon.

In the end the hosts will be kicking themselves after a superb start to their chase put them well on course to hunt down the daunting total, only for a late-innings collapse to cost them dearly as they fell just short.

The Knight Riders won the toss and put the Super Giants in to bat, but were put to the sword by Nicholas Pooran, who flayed eight sixes and seven fours in crunching his way to an unbeaten 87 off just 36 balls, while Mitchell Marsh was almost as impressive, crashing 81 off 48 (6x4; 5x6), as they reached 238-3 at the end of their 20 overs.

The home team were then unable to overhaul the score, largely due to none of the batters staying in and maximising, as captain Ajinkya Rahane top scored with 61 off 35 (8x4; 2x6), while Venkatesh Iyer, 45 off 29 (6x4; 1x6), Rinku Singh, 38* off 15 (6x4; 2x6) and Sunil Narine, 30 off 13 (4x4; 2x6), all chipped in to get them close.

The Knight Riders' chase got off to a flying start with 31 coming off the first two overs, but in the third Quinton de Kock (15), missed a ball that seamed back in to be trapped LBW by Akash Deep with the score 37-1.

That brough Rahane in to join Narine and they proceeded to hammer the ball to all parts of the ground in an incredible power play.

After the first three overs went for 16, 15 and 14, the next three disappeared for 15, 13 and 17 as they powered to a monster 90-1 after six overs.

In the next over Digvesh Rathi made the breakthrough, having Narine caught by Aiden Markram at long off, leaving them on 92-2.

Although that slowed them down a touch, Rahane and Iyer still found the boundary regularly as they moved onto 129-2 at the halfway mark.

Having extended their third-wicket stand to 72 runs, with Rahane reaching his half century, and the score moving past the 150 mark, Shardul Thakur made the important breakthrough at the end of a terrible 13th over that saw five wides at the start of it, with Rahane patting a full toss softly to Pooran at cover.

That started a disastrous collapse that saw the Knight Riders lose five wickets for 23 runs in 20 balls, as they crashed from 162-2 to 185-7 at the start of the 17th over, which included the big wickets of Iyer, caught by a diving Markram coming in from long off, off the bowling of Deep, and Andre Russell (7), caught by David Miller off Shardul Thakur.

With 54 needed off 23 balls and just the tail for company, Singh played a loan hand in trying to get his side over the line, as he shared in an unbeaten 49-run stand with Harshit Rana (10*), but they ended up just short after taking 19 off the final over, having needed 24.

POWERFUL POORAN

Earlier in the match the Super Giants innings got off to a slowish start with just 20 off the first three overs, but they almost doubled that in the next three to move to 59-0 by the end of the powerplay.

They continued their strong start as they cruised to 95-0 at the halfway mark, but in the next over the Knight Riders made the breakthrough, as Harshit Rana got a ball to jag back at Aiden Markram, 47 off 28 (4x4; 2x6), to bowl him, with the score 99-1.

That brought Pooran in to join Marsh and they set the platform with a cracking 71-run second-wicket stand off just 30 balls to put the Super Giants into a strong position.

With Marsh eyeing a century he unfortunately fell, targeting the long boundary off Russell, but only managed to pick out Singh at deep point, leaving them on 170-2 in the 16th over.

But that didn’t slow down Pooran as he took complete charge of a 51-run third-wicket partnership off just 18 balls with Abdul Samad (6), who was a virtual spectator, as Pooran flayed sixes at will, as he slammed his way past fifty, which included him whacking 24 off his fellow countryman Russell.

Despite Samad being bowled by Rana in the penultimate over, Pooran continued on and was unlucky to run out of balls as he finished just 13 short of what would have been a stunning century.

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

LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS: Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), Ayush Badoni, Abdul Samad, David Miller, Shardul Thakur, Akash Deep, Avesh Khan, Digvesh Rathi

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