Russell powers KKR to four wicket win

PUNE, APRIL 18

Andre Russell’s spectacular all-round performance helped defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders beat Kings XI Punjab by 4 wickets in their IPL match.

The Jamaican all-rounder hit a blistering 66 off 36 balls as KKR, who were reeling at 60 for five after 8 overs, overhauled the 156-run target in 17.5 overs.

Russell, who took 2/39 apart from couple of smart catches during Punjab’s innings, was deservingly named the Man of the Match.

With the willow, he belted nine boundaries and two sixes adding 95 runs in 9.2 overs for the sixth wicket with Yusuf Pathan (28 not out). Defending a not so big total, KXIP bowlers needed to do well upfront and young Sandeep Sharma responded brilliantly with figures of 4/25 as he polished off the top-order with some incisive swing bowling.

He got Robin Uthappa (13), Manish Pandey (12) and Ryan ten Doeschate (0) with incoming deliveries. Ten Doeschate was a bit unlucky as replay showed that he got an inside edge.

Skipper Gautam Gambhir, who has been pretty consistent so far got one which Sandeep slanted across and Wriddhiman Saha took an easy catch.

Saha took a brilliant diving catch to cut short Suryakumar Yadav’s innings when he tried to steer a Thisara Perera delivery towards the vacant third-man boundary.

Russell came in with a counter-attacking mindset.

Earlier, a disciplined performance by the KKR bowlers enabled them to restrict Punjab to 155 for 9.

For the home team, skipper George Bailey played a useful hand with a 45-ball-60 while Glenn Maxwell (33) also showed some promise during his brief stay.

Pacers Umesh Yadav (3/33), Morne Morkel (2/27) and Andre Russell were impressive as they never let the KXIP batsmen dominate for a lengthy period of time. — PTI

Scoreboard

Kings XI Punjab

M Vijay c Russell b UT Yadav 0

V Sehwag  c Chawla b Russell 11

WP Saha c Pathan b Morkel 15

GJ Maxwell c Russell b UT Yadav 33

GJ Bailey run out (ten Doeschate/Uthappa) 60

NLTC Perera c Pandey b Russell 9

G Singh c S Yadav  b U Yadav 11

AR Patel c S Yadav b Narine 2

M Johnson c Gambhir b Morkel 1

Anureet Singh not out 0

Extras (B-9, LB-1, W-3) 13

Total (9 wkts in 20 overs) 155

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-23, 3-27, 4-90, 5-107, 6-131, 7-146, 8-154, 9-155

Bowling

U Yadav 4-0-33-3

M Morkel 4-0-27-2

A Russell 4-0-39-2

S Narine 4-0-17-1

P Chawla 4-0-29-0

Kolkata Knight Riders 

R Uthappa lbw Sandeep 13

G Gambhir c Saha b Sandeep 11

M Pandey c Bailey b Sandeep 12

S Yadav c Saha b Perera 23

Y Pathan not out 28

R ten Doeschate lbw b Sandeep 0

A Russell  b Johnson 66

P Chawla not out 4

Extras (lb-1, w-1) 2

Total (6 wickets; 17.5 overs) 159

Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-34, 3-60, 4-60, 5-60  6-155

Bowling

Sandeep 4-1-25-4

Anureet Singh 4-0-37-0

M Johnson 3.5-0-41-1

T Perera 4-0-33-1

Patel 2-0-22-0

Man of the Match: A Russell