Sunil Narine's All-Round Show helps KKR To Reach At the Top Spot

An All-Round performance from the West Indian Sunil Narine helped the Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) to register a thumping 98-run win over the Lucknow Supergiants(LSG), ensuring they move to the top of the points table. For the first time in IPL Cricket, a total above 200 was scored at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow. KKR scored a mammoth total of 235-6 in their allotted 20 overs, which proved to be an uphill task for the Lucknow team as they were bundled out for a paltry 137 in 16 overs.

The Difference: Middle overs

KKR scored heavily during the middle overs credit to Sunil Narine's aggressive batting display, he was also the wrecker in chief to bamboozle the LSG batters with his mystery spin as Lucknow Collapsed during the middle overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders Performance

Powerplay: Narine and Salt continue to hurt Lucknow

KKR: 70/1 (RR:11.67, 11x4s, 2x6s)

Phil Salt and Sunil Narine once again continued to pile on the runs in the PowerPlay, while Salt got off the blocks early, Narine took his time initially but soon found his groove, KKR raced to 50 in quick time, soon after Salt nicked one to KL Rahul, But Narine continued to pile on the runs, Racing to 70 runs in 6 overs.

Middle Overs: Narine flexes his muscles, But LSG strikes back

KKR: 101/2 (RR: 11.22, 4x4s, 8x6s)

Once the PP was up Narine opened up and started to tear apart the faster bowlers, Angkrish Raghuvanshi too joined the party but only for a short time the young Turk played more of an anchor role scoring 32 off 26 balls and perished, The LSG bowlers got Andre Russell cheaply, Narine too fell quickly after Russell's departure hitting one straight into the hands of Devdutt Padikkal at Long off of Ravi Bishnoi's bowling.

Ramandeep aces the death overs

KKR: 64/3 (RR: 12.80, 6x4s, 3x6s)

Ramandeep, skipper Shreyas Iyer, and Rinku Singh ensured that the blitz continued in the death overs to amass 64 runs out of which Ramandeep Singh scored a quickfire 25 off 6 deliveries to provide the much-needed impetus and an extra cushion of 10-15 runs extra.

Lucknow Super Giants Performance

Powerplay: Stoinis takes the aggressive route

LSG: 55/1 (RR:9.17, 7x4s, 2x6s)

In pursuit of a big target, LSG went on the attacking mode early with KL Rahul cracking a boundary off the first ball. Despite losing Arshin Kulkarni in the second over to a stunner from Ramandeep Singh, they kept the attack on. In the fourth over, Stoinis smacked Starc for 3 boundaries and, two overs later, hooked Harshit Rana for a six, to give the chase a pump. It was the most productive powerplay for LSG this season.

Middle: Wheels came off

LSG: 60/7 (RR: 6.67, 3x4s, 4x6s)

The wheels of the chase completely came off in the middle overs. It began with Rahul getting caught at a deep point in the eighth over, and then the collapse never halted. Deepak Hooda has trapped LBW in the next over, followed by Andre Russell Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran all falling in quick succession, Narine and Varun Chakravarthy further added to their misery by sending back Ayush Badoni and Ashton Turner respectively. There was no letting off and in a bid to be on the offensive, LSG could never recover from the damage.

Death overs: A mere formality

LSG: 7/2 in 1.1 overs (RR 6.00, 0x4s, 1x6s)

With the result a forgone conclusion it was all upon the KKR bowlers as to how much time they needed to polish off the last two wickets. They didn't take much time and took just 7 deliveries to wrap up the tail.

Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 235/6 in 20 overs (Sunil Narine 81, Phil Salt 32; Naveen-ul-Haq 3-49) beat Lucknow Super Giants 137 in 16.1 overs (Marcus Stoinis 36, KL Rahul 25; Harshit Rana 3-24, Varun Chakravarthy 3-30) by 98 runs