Left Arm Around

Punjab Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 16 runs in a dramatic low-scoring contest at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Stadium in New Chandigarh.

The home side recorded the lowest total successfully defended in the IPL’s 18 year history, posting a meagre 111 after being dismissed in 15.3 overs.

Visitors KKR looked to be on course for a comfortable victory despite the early dismissals of openers Sunil Narine and Quinton De Kock, with skipper Ajinkya Rahane and impact player Angkrish Raghuvanshi building a solid partnership that left the required rate declining.

But after Rahane was pinned LBW for 17 by Yuzvendra Chahal, they collapsed in a heap to slip from 62/2 to 95 all-out in a matter of 45 deliveries.

Chahal, 34, was the chief destroyer in an excellent spell of 4/28: collecting the key wickets of Rinku Singh and Ramandeep Singh alongside Raghuvanshi and Rahane.

West Indian veteran Andre Russell was the final victim to fall for 17 as Marco Jansen clattered into his stumps to trigger jubilant celebrations.

The South African left-armer ended with figures of 3/17, the best of his IPL career thus far.

Earlier, the Punjab Kings innings told a similar story following a rapid start in the powerplay.

Sitting at 39 without loss inside 19 balls, in-form openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh looked to be setting a great platform for batters down in the middle order.

However, when Arya fell for 22 and skipper Shreyas Iyer followed him to the pavilion for a duck two balls later, they were simply unable to recover and post any meaningful partnerships.

Josh Inglis came and went for only 2 and Glenn Maxwell continued his horrific IPL season, with Varun Chakravarthy dismissing them both, however a ninth-wicket stand of 23 between debutant Xavier Bartlett and Shashank Singh dragged the Kings passed three figures and may have been the difference between the two sides.

A crushing defeat for KKR leaves them sixth in the table with three wins and four losses from seven matches.

Punjab Kings, however, sit fourth and look well on course for a play-off spot having won four of their six matches.

What’s next?

PBKS face a trip to the Chinaswamy Stadium to face Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday, while KKR return to action at the Eden Gardens on Monday against Gujarat Titans.