Shreyas Iyer-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) took on Sam Curran-led Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the 42nd match of Indian Premier League 2024 (IPL 2024) on Friday, April 26, at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The two-time IPL champions went into the duel with a superior direct record against the Punjab Kings. Out of 32 games between the teams, the Knight Riders emerged victorious in 21 games, with the Kings winning 11. It was no different at Eden Gardens as Kolkata Knight Riders won 9 of the 12 games between the teams.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Kings invited Kolkata Knight Riders to bat first in the match and the opening duo of Sunil Narine and Phil Salt nullified the PBKS bowling attack. After Phil Salt (75) and Sunil Narine (71) were dismissed, Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell and Shreyas Iyer helped KKR to their highest ever score at Eden Gardens – 261/6.
Chasing the target, Prabhsimran Singh and Jonny Bairstow gave PBKS an exceptional start by playing an attacking brand of cricket. Prabhsimran got out for a fifty but Jonny Bairstow struck a brutal note. In the end, Shashank Singh joined Jonny Bairstow and together they helped PBKS to an 8-wicket win.
The way the batters batted was impressive, Sunny came in – Shreyas Iyer
At the post-match award ceremony, Shreyas Iyer said that his batters did a great job in the game. Shreyas Iyer said:
“I would have taken (260 at the start of the day). The way the batters were batting was great to see when Sunny came in. The way Salt batted, they delivered and it was a sight to behold.”
Shreyas Iyer added that after a major failure with the ball, they need to go back to the drawing board and come up with better ideas. Finally, Shreyas Iyer praised Sunil Narine for his heroics. Shreyas Iyer explained:
“Both teams played great, one of those games where you go back to the drawing board and see where something went wrong, especially because you weren’t able to defend 260. We need to summarize the conditions and come up with better ideas. It’s brilliant to see him (Narine) go out and hit the ball, hopefully he continues to do performances like that.”
Ahead of their IPL 2024 meeting, the last time these two teams faced each other, there was a thriller in Kolkata with the home team winning by 5 wickets on the last ball on May 8. Bowling first, KKR restricted the Punjab Kings to 179/7 in 20 overs as Varun Chakravarthy picked a three-wicket haul and Harshit Rana, Nitish Rana and Suyash Sharma shared four wickets.
Chasing the target, Jason Roy and Nitish Rana played really good innings from the top order to lay the foundation for a successful chase which was eventually taken advantage of by Andre Russell and Rinku Singh who finished the game.