1 week Ago
It was the second loss in three home games for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens after they fell agonisingly short of the 239-run target that the Lucknow Super Giants set in overcast weather in the day game. Knight Riders had their opportunities several times, especially after the 90-run powerplay they had despite losing a wicket, to chase that total down but losing wickets at the wrong time, pushing batters like Andre Russell and Rinku Singh further down the order didn't help their cause. One of the crucial moments of the match was the 13th over of KKR's innings where just before there was a pause in the game with Rishabh Pant getting his back being tended to by the physio, alike the T20 World Cup final.
The slowdown was intentional as Rishabh Pant admitted after the game and it resulted in a wicket eventually even though it was a chaotic over with a lot of wides, a boundary and then finally a wicket off a full toss. Shardul Thakur's golden arm struck a couple of wickets, both off full tosses but it was baptism by fire for the veteran pacer, who bowled the joint-longest over in the . Thakur began the over with five wides but eventually came back to break the dangerous partnership but had bowled 11 deliveries in the process.
11 balls (0,1,2,nb,wd,nb,wd,4,wd,6,0) - Tushar Deshpande (CSK) vs LSG - Chennai, 2023 11 balls (0,1,wd,wd,wd,wd,2,4,wd,4,0) - Mohammed Siraj (RCB) vs MI - Bengaluru, 2023 11 balls (wd,wd,wd,wd,wd,1,1,0,4,2,W) - Shardul Thakur (LSG) vs KKR - Kolkata, 2025 Thankfully for the Super Giants, eventually it paid off as Thakur also went on to get another big wicket of Russell while Rinku Singh was left doing the heavy lifting at the end alone with most of the recognised batters back in the dugout. It has been a season of resurgence for Thakur, who went unsold at the auction but has become the leader of the LSG attack and is taking wickets regularly. LSG now have won three out of the five games played, let by the big bats of Mitchell Marsh and Nicholas Pooran.
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