Led by stand-in captain Sam Curran, the Punjab Kings took on Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the 42nd match of the Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Friday, April 26, at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata .
The Punjab Kings bowlers opted to bowl first in the game and were seemingly clueless by KKR openers Phil Salt and Sunil Narine. Salt and Narine hit 75 and 71 runs respectively while Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer and Andre Russell were instrumental in helping KKR reach 261 for 6 on the board. For PBKS, Arshdeep Singh picked two wickets while Sam Curran, Harshal Patel and Rahul Chahar got one wicket each.
Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh chased the target and destroyed the KKR bowling unit. Singh failed to score much but Jonny Bairstow converted his fifty into a three-figure score and along with Shashank Singh steered PBKS to an 8-wicket win. This was the highest ever chase in the history of T20 cricket.
After the game, Sam Curran expressed his joy at the win and said that cricket is turning into baseball. Sam Curran said:
“Very nice. The most important thing is victory. Cricket turns into baseball. We’ve had a tough few weeks might give you an extra ball.
Sam Curran also praised Jonny Bairstow for his outstanding batting and described Shashank Singh and Ashutosh Sharma as the heroes of the tournament. Sam Curran explained:
“We persevered and managed to chase with the balls still left. Happy for Johnny. What a great shot. Shashank Singh was the star of the tournament for us. Ashutosh too. Proud of everyone.”
Previous 5 meetings between KKR and PBKS
In the last five meetings between the teams, Kolkata Knight Riders won three games and Punjab Kings won two games. On 8 May 2023, KKR restricted PBKS to 179/7 and then chased the target to win the game by 5 wickets.
Before that, in the same season on April 1, Kolkata Knight Riders posted 191/5 on the board and restricted KKR to 146/7 to win by 7 runs as the target was reduced to 154 as per the DLS method.
In the 2022 Indian Premier League, KKR and PBKS have faced each other only once on April 1 at Wankhede, where KKR beat their opponents by 6 wickets with 33 balls remaining, leaving them behind by 138 runs. Taking the rivalry further, the Punjab Kings defeated the Knight Riders by 5 wickets in Dubai on October 1 as they successfully completed the run-chase of 166 and in the same season, KKR recorded a 5-wicket win over in April the Punjab-based franchise 26 in Ahmedabad as they comprehensively chased down the small target of 123/9.