KKR vs LSG | Pooran-Marsh blitzkriegs prove just enough to edge KKR in high-scoring thriller

Asked to bat first on an Eden Gardens track boasting a healthy tinge of green, Mitchell Marsh and Aiden Markram bid their time against the swinging ball before deciding to break loose against Spencer Johnson in the fourth over. The big Aussie was punished for 18 and a similar fate awaited Harshit Rana in the final over of the powerplay, taking the visitors to 59/0 after six. Yet, the show was just beginning, as Marsh went after Sunil Narine immediately after the field restrictions lifted to extract 13, and the duo coped with the Narine-Varun Chakravarthy brilliantly to further extend the stand to to 95 at the halfway stage. Ajinkya Rahane went back to Harshit hoping for the strike bowler to provide him a breakthrough and the right-arm quick took two balls to deliver, his off-cutter befuddling Markram all-hands up to end the 28-ball stay for 47. Unfortunately, things only became worse thereafter for the hosts as Nicholas Pooran walked in with a vengeance and Marsh also switched gears after bringing up a fourth half-century this season, off 36 balls. The duo racked up four consecutive 16 over runs against Johnson, Vaibhav Arora, Varun, and Narine respectively, pushing the score to 170 with five overs remaining. Even though Harshit ended the Aussie’s hopes of a maiden IPL ton with yet another cutter, Pooran only found more inspiration to go quicker and catapulted himself to a 21-ball fifty with consecutive sixes off the Delhi pacer in the 17th over. Then 24 more followed off Russell in the 18th, all off Pooran’s bat, and despite a couple of tight overs to close, pooran remained unbeaten on his new highest IPL score of 87 with the target a mammoth 239.

The chase began ominously for LSG when Akash Deep delivered five wides first up, before Quinton de Kock and Narine began like the game intended them to wth 31 runs off the first two overs. The Proteas smashed another six in the third over to further dent Akash Deep but the pacer had the last laugh when he trapped de Kock plumb in front two balls later. Nevertheless, Ajinkya Rahane ensured there was no drop in momentum, immediately declaring his intent with two fours in three balls as the team registered their second highest powerplay score-ever of 90/1. When Digvesh Rathi took two balls to send Narine packing a twist beckoned, but Venkatesh Iyer kept the team philosophy going to establish another huge 69 run stand with skipper Rahane off just 40 deliveries. However, five wickets in as many overs at the cost of just 23 runs got LSG back on the front foot, with all the onus on Rinku Singh to chase down 54 off 23 deliveries. The big-hitter was bogged down by Rathi in the 18th that went for just seven and despite a spree of big hits in the final two overs as well as some lusty fours from Harshit Rana, KKR eventually fell an agonizing four runs short with Ravi Bishnoi managing to defend 24 in the final over.

KKR players want a spin pitch, and they can’t even play spin bowl on a mirror pitch. #KKRvsLSG

— RohitᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠRohit (@RohitGhimire16) April 8, 2025