Russell and Rinku star as KKR in the final ball thriller

Knight Riders of Kolkata 182 for 5 (Nitish 51, Russell 42, Roy 38, Chahar 2-23) Punjab kings 179 for 7 (Dhawan 57, Varun 3-26, Harshit 2-33) with five wickets

Kolkata Knight Riders clenched their teeth both in their match against Punjab Kings and in the tournament. Rinku Singh sealed another last ball victory for them, but this was no miraculous comeback from the dead. This was a chaotic game set up by KKR’s spinners, but even their batters struggled on a slow surface.

The result left the KKR and PBKS level at 10 points from 11 games. Five teams are currently tied on that mid-table points tally, but both Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians – who meet on Tuesday – have a game in hand.

Harshit Rana checks

PBKS would always aim for the new ball because they expected the spinners to be effective on this field, which is why they batted first. Prabhsimran Singh was up early and used Vaibhav Arora’s inswing to pick up three boundaries in the first over.

However, the impressive Harshit Rana threw hard lengths and got a disturbing bounce off the field. He had caught both Prabhsimran and Bhanuka Rajapaksa at the wicket while chasing big shots. Rajapksa’s return to the side ended with a three-ball duck. Still pushing hard, Liam Livingstone helped PBKS with 19 from the fifth over, bowled by Russell, to make it 51 for 2.

Again Varun made the breakthrough, turning the ball away from Jitesh and taking the edge to the keeper. Nitish brought himself in as two left handed batters were at the wicket and got Dhawan for 57 on 47. Suyash proceeded to tighten the screws with Sam Curran’s wicket. In fact, PBKS were stuck on a slow delivery through 13 straight overs spin, giving them just 92 runs for five wickets.

Pace on, game on

As soon as KKR got going again in the last two overs, PBKS bounced back to life and took 36 runs to take the total to 87 from just seven overs at pace. Shahrukh Khan scored 21 out of 8 and Harpreet Brar 17 out of 9.

Nathan Ellis puts PBKS ahead early on

A similar pattern of batters chasing the pace followed, but Nathan Ellis, who played Kagiso Rabada creditably, confused Rahmanullah Gurbaz with his slower batter. At 39 for 1 after five overs, with Venkatesh Iyer not allowed to bat at number 3 at the time due to spending time off the pitch during the PBKS innings, KKR needed something special.

Rana attacks Livingstone

PBKS took pace off the ball, but Jason Roy and Nitish managed to hit Livingstone for a total of five boundaries in his two overs. It softened KKR’s blow that Roy lost to Brar, with the ball coming too late for his slog sweep. The comparison had become tricky – 104 from 10 overs on a tricky surface – when Nitish knocked down Livingstone’s second over, reducing KKR’s task to 88 from 54 balls.

Chahar keeps PBKS in it

He may not be having the best season, but Rahul Chahar turned up for PBKS with Iyer and Rana’s wickets earned by slowing the pace, which he himself carried out. On the fall of Rana’s wicket, KKR needed 56 from 28, and that was up to Russell and Rinku.

The finishing touch

Chahar bowled out in the 16th over, leaving KKR 51 to come off 24, but PBKS had a question to answer: bowl four overs off pace or go to Brar’s left arm spin. They chose the safe route. Ellis bowled out in the 17th, but went for 15 when Russell hit a four and Rinku a six. Ellis’ 4-0-29-1 numbers almost made up for the extra spinner’s absence, but KKR was still ahead of the game.

However, with 26 required on two, Curran made a few errors in execution, and Russell moved in with two sixes over the greater boundary. For good measure, he also slid one over the short side.

Arshdeep bowled an excellent last over, denied Russell the big hit and then ran him off scrambling for a bye to tie the game off the fifth ball. On the last ball, Arshdeep eventually fouled, and Rinku tagged the fine leg’s full toss square to get the requirement twice.