CHENNAI: A massive partnership of 120 between Phil Salt and Shreyan Iyer took Kolkata Knight riders past Lucknow Super Giants at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Mitchell Starc's three wickets in the first innings, helped the hosts keep Lucknow under par with 161 for seven in the first innings.
In the chase, Kolkata got off to a rapid start when Shamar Joseph gave away 20 runs in the first over. That set the tone even when Mohsin Khan sent Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi back inside the powerplay. Salt was his fiery best as he did not put a foot wrong. Looking at the economical bowling of the Kolkata bowlers, Lucknow introduced the spin early through Krunal Pandya, but the Englishman hit three consecutive boundaries to show his intention. Yash Thakur, who dismissed Shubman Gill in the powerplay, could not do much against the duo.
Ravi Bishnoi tried his best to control the flow of runs but the Kolkata pair found a way to score off other bowlers. Arshad Khan conceded 24 runs in his two overs, while Joseph accounted for 47 runs in his four overs. Salt completed his second half-century of the season off 26 balls. Iyer at times was the spectator at the other end, but his calm knock helped Kolkata bag the match by eight wickets.
Earlier, Iyer won the toss for Kolkata and opted to bowl first. Lucknow's Quinton de Kock started well with two back-to-back sixes off Starc, but Vaibhav Arora sent him back for 10. Deepak Hooda, batting at three struggled to get going and eventually fell for eight off Starc as Ramandeep Singh took a sensational catch at backward point. Captain KL Rahul and Ayush Badoni, fresh off his half-century against Delhi Capitals, was promoted to four, but he too struggled to get going early in his innings. Rahul tried to anchor the innings, but it became his downfall when he holed out to Ramandeep after scoring 39 off 27 balls.
Marcus Stoinis tried to get the scoring rate going, but Varun Chakravarthy cut his counterattack short. Nicolas Pooran, after his duck in the previous picture, had a lot on his shoulders with Lucknow struggling at 95 for four after 12 overs. Sunil Narine was at his absolute best in this passage when he took Badoni's wicket and did not give away any boundary. Pooran went after Arora and Harshit Rana and took Lucknow past 150. Before the West Indies batter could make any more damage Starc got his wicket off the first ball of the final over and gave away only six runs in the final over. Starc also took the wicket of Arshad Khan and Lucknow managed to score 161 for seven in the first innings.