Shreyas Iyer’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took on KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in match 28 of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Sunday, April 14 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the toss and elected to bowl first in the match. They got a big boost in the match when Harshit Rana returned to the playing XI. Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) also made significant changes by dropping Naveen-ul-Haq and Devdutt Padikkal, while Shamar Joseph, Deepak Hooda and Mohsin Khan made it to the playing XI.
Batting first, Lucknow Super Giants lost their first wicket in the second over themselves when Vaibhav Arora dismissed Quinton de Kock. Deepak Hooda followed De Kock to the dugout very early when Mitchell Starc cleaned him up in the fifth over, thanks to Ramandeep Singh’s blind spot.
Meanwhile, KL Rahul (39) and Ayush Badoni (29) got off to a bright start but could not register big scores. In the end, Nicholas Pooran played an excellent knock of 45 runs and helped the Super Giants score 161/7 on the board.
Chasing the target, Sunil Narine could not continue his batting brilliance at the top of the order as he was dismissed for 6. Soon Angkrish Raghuvanshi was dismissed for 7 and KKR were reduced to 42/2.
However, Phil Salt joined forces with his captain Shreyas Iyer and led KKR to an impressive 8-wicket victory. Salt played a stunning innings of 89 runs off 47 balls, while Iyer contributed 38 runs.
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Shreyas Iyer said that overall they were perfect with their performance in the match and recorded a complete victory. Shreyas Iyer stated:
“Pretty complete victory. Played well and bowled well. It was important to bowl the slower ones as much as possible because of the heat and the drying wicket. We executed phenomenally well.”
Shreyas Iyer highly praised his bowlers for being exceptional on the field. He also said that the Indian Premier League is a fun tournament where anything can happen, so they should stay present. Shreyas Iyer explained:
“When we got wickets, it gave us the advantage to come in and make an attacking effort. The character and attitude that the bowlers showed was exceptional. I will keep reiterating that it is a fun tournament and we should stay in the present as much as possible .seize the moment and don’t leave it to anyone else.”
Kolkata Knight Riders’ journey in Indian Premier League 2024 ahead of Lucknow supergiants clash
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) started their Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) campaign on a high by beating Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 4 runs on March 23. They played a great style of cricket and provided adequate entertainment for the crowd, taking advantage of Andre Russell’s all-round masterclass.
The Gautam Gambhir-led team next faced Faf du Plessis’ Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in a high-voltage clash. Sunil Narine made a huge contribution in the match as Knight Riders completely crushed their rivals by 7 wickets with 19 balls remaining.
On April 3, they went head-to-head with the Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) and the team’s batting unit annihilated the opposing team. The Knight Riders posted an all-time total of 272/7 and defeated DC by 106 runs to register a hat-trick of wins in the Indian Premier League 2024.
Shreyas Iyer & Co. faced their first defeat of the season on April 8 when they took on Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 22nd match of the Indian Premier League 2024. The batting unit of The team’s top flight performed very poorly, resulting in them earning a below-average total. The bowlers were also not up to the mark in the match and the Knight Riders were beaten by 7 wickets with 14 balls remaining.