Andre Russell smashed a sparkling unbeaten 70 off 31 balls as the Kolkata Knight Riders defeated the Punjab Kings by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday.
After being asked to bat first by PBKS skipper Mayank Agarwal, KKR got off to an excellent start as Umesh Yadav trapped Mayank Agarwal (1) leg before wicket in the very first over.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa joined in and smashed Shivam Mavi for 22 runs in his opening over. However Mavi had the last laugh as he dismissed Rajapaksha off the very next delivery for a quickfire 9 ball-31. His knock comprised off 3 fours and 3 sixes.
Shikhar Dhawan (16) edged a Tim Southee delivery behind the stumps. Liam Livingstone was caught at long off boundary by Tim Southee off Yadav for 19.
Sunil Narine then got into the act by cleaning up Raj Bawa for 11, as Punjab lost half their side for 84.
Shahrukh Khan mistimed a Southee delivery to Nitish Rana for a duck. Harpreet Brar (14) and Rahul Chahar (0) were dismissed in the 15th over, as Punjab Kings slumped to 102/8.
Kagiso Rabada’s quickfire 16 ball- 25 helped Punjab reach 137.
For Kolkata, Umesh Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/23, while Tim Southee bagged 2 wickets.
Chasing 138, Ajinkya Rahane (12) looked solid as he hit three boundaries before he outside-edged a Kagiso Rabada delivery to Odean Smith at short third man.
Venkatesh Iyer’s poor run with the bat continued as he fell to Smith for 3, slapping one to Harpreet Brar at covers.
Rahul Chahar pegged the Knight Riders back with wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana as the Punjab Kings slumped to 51/4.
Sam Billings(24)* and Russell (70)* featured in a unbeaten 90 run stand for the fifth wicket as the Knight Riders overhauled the target in 14.3 overs.
For Punjab, Rahul Chahar bagged 2/13.
Umesh Yadav was declared the Man of the Match.