Cricket – Punjab Kings successfully defended the lowest total in the Indian Premier League (IPL) history as they defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 16 runs in a low-scoring thriller yesterday.
Chasing 112 at the PCA New International Cricket Stadium, Kolkata crumbled under the pressure applied by Punjab’s Yuzvendra Chahal (4-28) and Marco Jansen (3-17), who shared seven wickets between them.
“The heart rate still up a bit for me. It’s probably up over 200. I don’t need many of those games like that at my age of over 50 now. Just goes to show how funny a game it is,” Punjab coach Ricky Ponting said.
Kolkata captain Ajinkya Rahane and impact player Angkrish Raghuvanshi tried to hold up Punjab but the visitors failed against the host’s attack and lost eight wickets for 33 runs, scoring only 95 in 15.1 overs.
“It was only three days ago we couldn’t defend 246 (against Sunrisers Hyderabad) and here we are, you know, defending 112 with 16 runs up our sleeves,” Ponting said.
“I couldn’t have been prouder of the way we went about in the second half. I mean our batting was poor ... I actually thought that that was a season defining moment, and it might be now as well.
Punjab, who opted to bat, also had an off day in batting as they only posted 111 in 15.3 overs with Prabhsimran Singh as their top-scorer with 30 off 15 deliveries.
Prabhsimran and Priyansh Arya started well but others underperformed as Kolkata’s Harshit Rana controlled the run flow and returned with the figures of 3-25 in three overs while Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy picked two wickets apiece.
“It is tough to talk right now and such wins make it special... There was variable bounce in the wicket, we got a decent total to be honest, looking at the win of 16 runs,” Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer said. “The bounce was not consistent. We had this at the back of our mind and we asked the bowlers to keep this in mind. And they executed it.”
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