KKR were sure-footed and agile in their chase . Only once had a higher total been successfully chased down in the IPL and Sunil Narine took it upon himself to give his team a platform after Quinton de Kock perished trying.
Ajinkya Rahane’s entry at No.3 really did shift the momentum in KKR’s favour – the captain struck 61 off 35 to light up the Eden Gardens and brighten KKR’s hopes. His partnership with Venkatesh Iyer promised so much but then how do you keep Shardul Thakur out of business?
Thakur struck to dismiss Rahane and that sparked a KKR collapse. Ramandeep Singh and Angkrish Raghuvanshi were sent ahead of Andre Russell in a chase situation tailormade for the West Indian smasher. Even Rinku Singh, who was explosive in the last game, came in at No.8 but by then, the pressure was firmly back on KKR.
Venkatesh Iyer was impressive once again but KKR lost him and Russell in successive overs to hand control back to LSG. Their only problem at that stage was Rinku Singh but even his unbeaten 38 off 15 wasn’t enough for the Knight Riders as they went down by 4 runs.
When they look back at this game, KKR woud perhaps want to revisit their tactics around Russell and Rinku even in such steep run chases.
LSG have assembled a group of power-hitters with a license to thrill. So when they saw what the Eden Gardens pitch had to offer, how could they refuse!
Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh toyed with the KKR bowlers and added 99 for the first wicket in just 10.2 overs. Unlike Marsh, Markram did not hit his stride immediately this season but now that he has, the South African batter raced ahead of Marsh and put on a scintillating display.
Aiden Markram was severe on almost all the KKR bowlers – Vaibhav Arora and Varun Chakravarthy were the only exceptions in an otherwise wayward bowling display.
Mitchell Marsh was slow off the blocks but when he got going, he brought carnage to the park. At one point, he was on his way to his maiden IPL hundred before his 81 was ended by Andre Russell, the most dangerous partnership breaker in the T20 game.
Next up, Nicholas Pooran did not like the idea of the Orange Cap being taken away from him. Marsh almost had it for sometime but Pooran blazed in, became the third fastest batter to hit 150 IPL sixes, crossed 2000 IPL runs and snatched the Orange Cap back from his teammate.
KKR bore the brunt as Pooran packed 87 not out off 36 balls in an innings studded with 8 sixes.
While LSG continue to dominate bowling line-ups, this Pooran vs Marsh battle for the Orange Cap will be fun to watch unless someone else comes and spoils the party at the top.
IPL 2025: LSG win high-scoring thriller by 4 runs as KKR hold back Russell, Rinku Inside Sport India.
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