In the 44th match of the 11th season of Indian Premier League (IPL) between Ravichandran Ashwin-led Kings XI Punjab and Dinesh Karthik’s Kolkata Knight Riders, KKR batsmen batted exceptionally well to take the score to 245 for six in 20 overs at the Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore, on Saturday.

After winning the toss, KXIP skipper R Ashwin invited Dinesh Karthik’s side to bat first and Sunil Narine (75 runs off 36 balls), along with Aussie player Chris Lynn (27 runs off 17 balls), gave a flying start to the Knight Riders. The duo added 53 runs for KKR in 5.2 overs.

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KXIP speedster Andrew Tye broke Narine -Lynn’s partnership by sending the later back to the pavilion.

Following Lynn’s departure, Robin Uthappa (24 runs off 17 balls) joined Narine at the crease and added 75 runs for the second wicket.

Andrew Tye brought KXIP back into the game by sending Sunil Narine and Robin Uthappa back to the stands in the 12th over.

After Narine and Uthappa’s dismissals, KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell (31 runs off 14 balls), took the charge of KKR’s innings and put up the 76-run partnership for the fourth wicket.

However, Punjab speedster Andrew Tye removed Russell from the crease.

After Russell departed, Nitish Rana (11 runs off 3 deliveries) joined Karthik at the crease but was not able to do much damage to KXIP bowlers and soon Mohit Sharma sent him back to the stands.

KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik scored 50 runs off 22 deliveries with a strike rate of 217.39 before giving his wicket to Barinder Sran.

Meanwhile, Shubman Gill scored 16 runs off 8 balls with a strike rate of 200 runs.

From KXIP camp, Andrew Tye bagged four wickets. Mohit Sharma and Barinder Sran took one wicket each.

Fall of wickets:

Kolkata: 53-1 (Chris Lynn, 5.2), 128-2 (Sunil Narine, 11.3), 129-3 (Robin Uthappa, 11.5), 205-4 (Andre Russell, 16.6), 218-5 (Nitish Rana, 17.5), 230-6 (Dinesh Karthik, 19.2)

Squads:

Kings XI Punjab (Playing XI): Chris Gayle, Lokesh Rahul(w), Mayank Agarwal, Aaron Finch, Karun Nair, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin(c), Andrew Tye, Mohit Sharma, Barinder Sran, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik(w/c), Andre Russell, Javon Searles, Piyush Chawla, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav