CHENNAI: On a night where batters made mockery of the boundary ropes and T20 chases, Punjab Kings came out smiling in the City of Joy as they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets at the Eden Gardens.
When KKR posted 261/6 in 20 overs, they would have thought they have a better chance, but 18.4 overs later, Kings registered the highest chase ever in the shortest format. The cherry on the top was the 42 sixes hit in the match, the most in any T20.
With the record chase (262) at the Eden Gardens at stake, Punjab came all guns blazing as impact player Prabhsimran Singh smashed an 18-ball fifty, that too inside the powerplay.
His opening partner Jonny Bairstow hit 24 runs in the final over of the powerplay by Anukul Roy to take Punjab to 93 after six overs.
Punjab lost Singh, but nothing could stop Bairstow who went on to hit a 45-ball century and kept Punjab in the chase. From thereon, Shashank Singh (68 n.o off 28 balls) and Bairstow (108 n.o off 48) took the team home in the penultimate over.
Earlier, Punjab won the toss and opted to bowl first. Punjab captain Sam Curran started well and offered only seven runs from his first over, but the opening duo for Kolkata Knight Riders, Sunil Narine, and Phil Salt recovered well to make it to 76 off the powerplay. The introduction of spin via Rahul Chahar slowed down the duo, but they took 22 runs in Kasigo Rabada’s next over to make up for it. The opening juggernaut continued as Kolkata reached 137 at the halfway mark with Narine completing a half-century off 23 balls and Salt joining him, with his own half-ton off 25 balls.
In the 11th over Chahar broke the partnership with the wicket of Naine. Salt smashed two back-to-back sixes off Curran, but lost his wicket. Andre Russell flexed his muscles as Kolkata posted 261/6. Brief scores: KKR 261/6 in 20 ovs (Salt 75, Narine 71) lost to PBKS 262/2 in 18.4 ovs (Bairstow 108 n.o, Shashank 68 n.o, Prabhsimran 54).
