Andre Russell’s all round effort with both bat and ball went in vain as the Knight Riders went down by 8 runs against the Gujarat Titans at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Saturday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Gujarat Titans didn’t get of to the best of starts as Shubman Gill (7) nicked at a Tim Southee delivery down the leg-side to Sam Billings.
Wriddhiman Saha along with skipper Hardik Pandya featured in a 75 run stand for the second wicket before the former was caught at backward point by Venkatesh Iyer while attempting a scoop off Umesh Yadav for a run a ball 25.
Hardik was involved in yet another valuable 50 run stand for the third wicket along side David Miller before the latter (27) miscued an off cutter from Shivam Mavi.
Tim Southee pegged the Titans back with wickets of the well set Pandya and Rashid Khan for 67 & 0 respectively.
Andre Russell then claimed four wickets in the final over as Gujarat Titans were restricted to 156/9 in their allotted 20 overs.
For KKR, Andre Russell was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/5, while Tim Southee ended up with 3 wickets.
Chasing 157, KKR were rocked early as Mohammed Shami dismissed both Sam Billings (4) and Sunil Narine (5) in quick succession.
Lockie Ferguson then got into the act as Nitish Rana edged one behind the stumps to Saha. Skipper Shreyas Iyer too perished cheaply nicking left arm seamer Yash Dayal behind the wickets.
Rinku Singh and Venkatesh Iyer stabilized the innings with a valuable 45 run stand for the fifth wicket before the former was dismissed by Dayal for a 28 ball-35.
Rashid Khan then claimed his 100th IPL wicket by removing Venkatesh Iyer, caught brilliantly by Abhinav Manohar at deep midwicket boundary.
The Afghanistan star spinner also claimed his second by dismissing Shivam Mavi with a googly.
Russell and Umesh Yadav added 37 valuable runs for the eight wicket before Alzarri Joseph dashed the Knight Riders hopes by dismissing the hard hitting West Indies all rounder, caught brilliantly by Lockie Ferguson for a quickfire 25 ball-48.
In the end the Knight Riders ended up with 148/8 in their allotted 20 overs.
For GT, Mohammed Shami, Yash Dayal and Rashid Khan claimed 2 wickets each.
Gujarat Titans 156-9 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 67, David Miller 27; Andre Russell 4/5, Tim Southee 3/24) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 148-8 in 20 overs (Andre Russell 48, Rinku Singh 35; Mohammed Shami 2-20, Rashid Khan 2-22) by 8 runs.