Riding on three wicket hauls from Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana, Kolkata Knight Riders jumped to the top of the IPL 2024 standings with an emphatic victory against Lucknow Super Giants.
The KKR's bowling unit has been quite clinical and consistent. The top 10 wicket-takers list in IPL 2024 features three KKR bowlers.
While spinners Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine have been brilliant, young pacer Harshit Rana is enjoying a dream run.
LSG vs KKR: The best spells of the match...
Varun Chakravarthy
Chakravarthy spun a web around LSG's batting line-up in the middle overs with fine figures of 3/30.
The KKR mystery spinner looks on course for his most successful season in his IPL career. In 11 games, Chakravarthy has already amassed 16 wickets -- four short of his best haul of 20 wickets which he achieved last season.
He is the top wicket-taker among the spinners this season, playing an integral role in KKR's ascent to the top of the league standings.
He got Deepak Hooda in his opening over; Hooda misread the turn and was trapped plumb in front.
Ashton Turner slammed him for a couple of sixes in his second over but Chakravarthy had the last laugh. That wicket was fortunate as Turner's thick inside edge went off his boot straight to Chakravarthy on his follow through.
Yudhvir Singh also paid the price for looking to attack the KKR spinner. He smashed one six over long on but was done in by Chakravarthy's guile attempting another lofted shot, to be caught on the off side.
Sunil Narine
Narine had a match to remember! Not only did he smashed the KKR bowlers all around the park, but also bowled a tight spell.
Chasing a huge 236 for victory, LSG's batters looked to be aggressive in the Powerplay but struggled to get Narine away despite the fielding restrictions.
The West Indian bowled the fifth over of the Powerplay, in which he sent down four dot balls to Rahul, conceding just four runs, including a wide.
The four hit by Marcus Stoinis in his second over was the only boundary he conceded in his four over spell.
His disciplined bowling was rewarded with Ayush Badoni's wicket in the final over; the youngster lofted a simple catch to long off.
Narine registered good figures of 1/22 which included seven dot balls. He is among just three players in IPL history, who have bagged the double of 1500 runs and 150 wickets -- the other two being Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo.
Narine's control has been impeccable in IPL 2024, taking 14 wickets in 11 games at an economy rate of 6.61 -- the second best economy rate among the leading bowlers after Jasprit Bumrah (6.25).
Andre Russell
Russell made up for his failure with the bat with a match-clinching spell in the middle overs.
The West Indian bagged the well-set Stoinis for 36 with his first ball of the match to finish off LSG's hopes of making a comeback.
Russell continued his good record against Stoinis, dismissing the Australian for the fifth time in T20 cricket.
In his next over, he was unlucky to get another wicket off the first ball as Narine put down a running catch at third man to give Badoni a lifeline. But Russell was not to be denied as he dismissed fellow West Indian Nicholas Pooran with the next ball.
Russell bent his back to get some extra bounce on the short ball as Pooran got the edge trying to pull and wicket-keeper Phil Salt completed a sharp catching leaping high.
It was also the fifth time that Pooran was dismissed by Russell.
Russell played his part to perfection, with a middle overs cameo of 2/17 in two overs, to put KKR on course for an easy victory.
Harshit Rana
While Narine and Chakravarthy have led the way with the ball for KKR, young pacer Harshit Rana has not been far behind.
The 22-year-old Delhi fast bowler is playing just his third IPL season but is turning out to be a key bowler for the two-time champions.
Rana struck in his second over when he dismissed LSG Captain Rahul for 25, ending a crucial 50 run partnership for the second wicket with Stoinis.
Rahul looked to break free after a sedate start before ended up hitting a full wide delivery straight to Ramandeep Singh at deep point in the eighth over.
He added another wicket to his tally, as Krunal Pandya was caught by Salt, as he tried to play the ramp shot off the pacer.
Fittingly, Rana finished off the match as he trapped Ravi Bishnoi leg before in the 17th over.
Rana's splendid spell of 3/24 in 3.1 overs was instrumental in KKR's demolition job with the ball as LSG crashed for 137 in 16.1 overs to lose by 98 runs -- their biggest defeat in the IPL in terms of runs.
Ravi Bishnoi
Spinner Ravi Bishnoi left his mark with a tight spell in a high-scoring contest.
Coming into the attack in the eighth over, he made a tidy start, conceding just eight runs in his opening over as he did well to keep Sunil Narine in check but went for 10 runs in his second over.
Narine was keen to take the leg-spinner to the cleaners as he had done to the other LSG bowlers. He looked to hit Bishnoi down the ground but failed to middle the loft. The ball went straight to substitute Devdutt Padikkal at long off who took the catch easily but ended up touching the boundary ropes to give Narine a lifeline and the extra bonus of a six!
The West Indian was dropped again off the very next delivery, this time by Mohsin Khan at short third man who flung himself to his right but failed to hold on to a tough chance.
But Bishnoi wasn't disheartened! The young leggie tempted Narine with the flighted delivery who again tried to launch it down the ground but was caught at long off by Padikkal, who made sure he completed a clean catch this time around.
The wicket was a huge boost for LSG, who managed to keep KKR's batters quiet in the next few overs.
Bishnoi conceded seven in his final over, the 14th of the innings, to finish with tidy figures of 1/33 in four overs, conceding below eight per over while the rest of his team-mates went for lot of runs.
Naveen-ul-Haq
The Afghan pacer didn't enjoy a great start to his spell. Called to bowl in the third over of the Powerplay, he was slammed for two boundaries each by Salt and Narine to concede 19 runs.
Another boundary followed off the first ball of his second over before Naveen redeemed himself with Salt's wicket. The slower ball pitched away moved away sharply as Salt went after it, got the edge and wicket-keeper Rahul completed a superb catch diving to his right.
In his third over, he bagged another key wicket when he dismissed Andre Russell, who sliced the ball high on the off side with substitute Krishnappa Gowtham taking a good catch running backwards from cover.
Naveen claimed another vital wicket in his final over as Rinku Singh pulled the slower bouncer straight to Stoinis at deep square leg.
Naveen, who conceded 30 runs in his first two overs, bounced back in his latter spells with two wickets for 19 runs in his last two overs, to finish with 3/49.
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Photographs: BCCI
