Kolkata: Shubman Gill’s 85 wasn’t enough as Kolkata Knight Riders rode brisk fifties from Finn Allen, Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Cameron Green, a fair bit of luck and pluck to defeat Gujarat Titans by 29 runs at Eden Gardens on Saturday to stay in the hunt for the playoffs with 11 points.
Raghuvanshi slammed a career-best 44-ball 82* and Green 52 off 28 balls after Allen set the stage with a 35-ball 93. Twenty-two sixes were hit in KKR’s innings of 247/2 but more significantly, Gujarat Titans dropped four catches to facilitate that rampage.
Titans came out all guns blazing, Gill leading the charge with a majestic innings that nearly gave them the wings to go all the way. But KKR kept taking those crucial wickets at the right junctures to deny Titans the final push. All of this despite Varun Chakravarthy conceding 47 runs in four overs and Matheesha Pathirana hobbling off the field after bowling just 1.2 overs. Sunil Narine was as usual excellent, conceding only 29 runs in four overs with two wickets, one of which Gill caught brilliantly by Anukul Roy inches from the boundary skirting.
Jos Buttler had warmed up to the task by then, hitting the first two balls of Kartik Tyagi’s 16th over for four and six. Tyagi’s next over went for 21 runs, Buttler carving him over extra cover for six to bring down the equation to 45 off 12 balls. This is where tall left-arm pacer Saurabh Dubey entered, bowling possibly the most important over of his life. Dots off the first two balls, the pressure was on Sai Sudharsan to find boundaries, but Buttler caved in, slicing a slower ball to long-off. In hindsight, the 29-run margin could be attributed to only the mistake of giving Allen a reprieve.
Allen knows only one way to bat. So, it’s always imperative he is dismissed as early as possible. Which also has been the case more or less throughout this season. Till Mohammed Siraj spilled the catch at long-on when Allen was on 33. A short ball at Jason Holder’s pace was just the bait needed for Allen as he stood tall and pulled but didn’t quite get the distance on it. Siraj, taking all the time he needed, tried to take it with his hands reverse cupped. But to the dismay of his team, he dropped it. Allen smashed 59 runs off the next 16 balls.
Half of those deliveries were hit for sixes, underpinning Allen’s astonishing boundary clearing ability. Rashid Khan opened his spell with a slip and 91 kph overpitched delivery, Allen responded by clearing his front leg and clubbing it over long-on for six. Next ball, another six, this time over deep midwicket. Bowling full was empowering his arc but Gujarat Titans kept repeating that error, first through the spinners and then even Jason Holder who normally bowls back of the length. Once he had zoomed past fifty though, Allen was in a different zone, not sparing any length.
The brunt of the assault was reserved for Arshad Khan in the 11th over when Allen thumped him for three sixes in four balls, handsomely clearing long leg, deep midwicket and deep square leg. Exasperated, Arshad tried to go wider but bowled fuller, allowing Allen to blast him through extra-cover for four, meaning KKR had garnered 22 from that over. Just when the hundred seemed a formality did Allen not get a lofted drive off Sai Kishore right, Rashid Khan catching him comfortably at wide long-on.
That turned out to be an aberration as Titans kept dropping catches otherwise to round up a pedestrian bowling effort. Rashid conceded 57 runs, his most expensive IPL spell to date, Kishore 38 in his three, Siraj 50 off his four overs and Kagiso Rabada 40 in four overs.
Both Raghuvanshi and Green were dropped and they took full advantage of those reprieves by resorting to switch hits and clean strikes to add 108 runs for the third wicket.