The ‘taste’ of salt enhances the KKR win

At the Eden Gardens on Sunday, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) destroyed the Lucknow Super Giants’ (LSG) reputation for holding teams to low totals in the Indian Premier League (IPL-17) by defeating LSG’s 161-7 with eight wickets and 26 deliveries remaining. After the setback in Chennai earlier this week, KKR will be relieved to get back on track with their first win over their rival in four games.

To help KKR win, opener Phil Salt and captain Shreyas Iyer put up a third-wicket partnership of 120 runs in 76 balls. While Shreyas was not out at run-a-ball on 38 with six boundaries, Salt amassed an undefeated 89 off 47 balls with 14 boundaries and three sixes.

The LSG era never really got going. Mitchell Starc was first hit for two boundaries by deliveries from Quinton de Kock, but the South African left-hander dropped in the following over, and the rest of the innings was mostly a battle. Although captain KL Rahul persevered for a 27-ball 39 with three fours and two sixes, the Powerplay failed to give LSG the boost they had hoped for due to the early loss of new man Deepak Hooda, who was beautifully caught by Ramandeep Singh at point off Starc in the fifth over. There was a stir when Nicholas Pooran, the IPL’s six-hitting monster, came on, but his 32-ball 45, which included two fours and four sixes, was too little, too late.

With Sunil Narine recording miserly statistics of 4-0-17-1, everybody save Harshit Rana was among the wickets; possibly more importantly, however, was that Starc, who ended with three for 28, seemed to be finally finding his rhythm.

“It took a while to get into rhythm.”
Given his struggles in the previous matches, how did the most expensive player in the IPL deal with the noise? Starc blasted back, “I don’t read anything, so that doesn’t bother me,” adding, “It’s probably taken a bit longer to get into a rhythm than I thought.”

Shamar Joseph had his uneasy IPL debut as KKR started their reply, as the first over yielded an astounding 22 runs. After overstepping on his penultimate delivery and throwing three wide balls, the Guyana pacer, 24, fell apart. Salt blasted him for a six when he eventually delivered the ball that could be legally free-hit. With two vital wickets—Narine skydiving in the second over and Raghuvanshi nicking one in the fourth—Mohsin Khan contributed to the comeback.

From then, Salt and Shreyas took over.

Quick scores
KKR 162-2 in 15.4 overs (P Salt 89*, S Iyer 38*, M Khan 2-29) defeated LSG 161-7 in 20 overs (N Pooran 45, KL Rahul 39, M Starc 3-28) by 8 wickets.