Kolkata: Unseasonal rain washed out the Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings IPL match here at the Eden Gardens on Saturday.
The visitors leapfrogged Mumbai Indians to fourth spot with the one point earned from this abandoned match, but KKR’s qualification path remained difficult with seven points from nine games.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The defending champions might have seen a chance of earning full points from this match after they came back strongly to restrict the opposition to 201/4. They were seven for one when rain stopped play at 9.35 pm after the first over was bowled by Marco Jansen.
The umpires called off the game at 10.58 pm.
Earlier, the Punjab Kings’ opening pair continued to make an impression in this IPL as Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh once again gave the side a strong start.
Young Priyansh began by hitting pacer Vaibhav Arora for two fours each in the bowler’s first two overs. Prabhsimran took time to settle down before lifting Chetan Sakariya, coming in for Ramandeep Singh, over mid-off for the first six of the match.
The right-hander greeted first-change bowler Harshit Rana with a chop over the slip cordon for a boundary and then a six, making room on the leg side to bring up Punjab’s 50 runs in 27 balls.
After two consecutive tight overs by Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine, Priyansh lifted Chakaravarthy over deep mid-wicket for a six that saw KKR skipper Ajinkya Rahane bringing Rana back into the attack.
But Priyansh used Rana’s pace well to hit two fours and one six and reach his 50 off 27 balls.
The duo continued the onslaught, collecting 22 runs with three sixes off Narine’s third over. Andre Russell finally broke the 120-run stand — Punjab’s first 100-run opening-wicket partnership in this IPL — when Priyansh, after hitting the West Indian for a six the previous ball, perished going for a lofted shot again, only to be caught at deep midwicket boundary by Arora.
But Prabhsimran then took up the cudgels, hitting Sakariya for two fours and one six in the next over to get to his 50 off 38 balls.
Rana dropped a tough chance off Prabhsimran, who next targeted Chakravarthy for some rough treatment and managed 19 runs in one over.
Prabhsimran paced his innings well, collecting 34 runs in the first 32 balls and then stepped on the gas to get 49 runs off the next 17.
He eventually fell playing a mistimed full toss off Arora and was caught at long on for 83.
Punjab’s foreign players continued to fare poorly, with Glenn Maxwell, coming back in the side in place of Marcus Stoinis, getting only seven and Marco Jansen, promoted up the order at No. 5 ahead of Shashank Singh and Nehal Wadhera, scoring just three.
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