While the cricket fraternity enjoyed the festival between Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings at Eden Gardens on Friday (April 26), veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin may not have liked it much.
PBKS put together a record chase by chasing 262 runs to get back to winning ways in IPL 2024. In fact, the visitors crossed the finish line with as many as eight balls left in the innings. The Punjab team stayed on top from the start as their batsmen took the KKR players to cleanliness.
Summary of the match in summary:
Prabhsimran Singh set the tone for the world record chase by smashing an 18-ball fifty inside the powerplay as he and Jonny Bairstow shared a 93-run stand with just 36 balls for the first wicket. After his departure, Bairstow led the charge with the bat by smashing a 45-ball century. He and Rilee Rossouw shared an 85-run stand for the second wicket before the latter was dismissed for 26 by Sunil Narine.
The breakthrough, however, did not bring any respite to KKR as Shashank Singh fired on all cylinders from the word go. Bairstow played second fiddle after Rossouw’s departure while Shashank took charge of the innings. Shashank scored an unbeaten 68 off just 28 balls with the help of two fours and as many as eight sixes, while Bairstow scored 108 off just 48 balls.
Earlier in the game, KKR finished their innings at 261 for 6 in 20 overs after being asked to bat first. Openers Phil Salt and Sunil Narine laid the foundation for the grand total by scoring 75 and 71 runs respectively. The likes of Venkatesh Iyer (39), Andre Russell (24) and Shreyas Iyer (28) also made useful cameos for the hosts.
Ravichandran Ashwin reacts to run-fest:
As the KKR and PBKS batsmen took the bowlers to the cleaners and combined to score over 550 runs in less than 40 overs, Ravichandran Ashwin made a heartfelt plea. Jumping to the defense of the bowlers who have struggled to contain the batsmen in the ongoing IPL 2024. Ravichandran Ashwin took to X (formerly Twitter) to write an SOS message.
“Save the bowlers” someone please “ Ravichandran Ashwin wrote in his post followed by a series of SOS emojis.
“It’s about running a ball for the last 2 overs of a T 20 game in a chase of 260+. Let that sink in.” he added.
“Save the bowlers” someone please
🆘🆘🆘 #KKRvsPBKS #IPL2024-Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) April 26, 2024