Russell-mania: KKR won by 6 wickets with another Russell power show

A perfect battle was happening at Wankhede Stadium between Punjab Kings (141/4) and Kolkata Knight riders (137/10). Gigantic sixes were being hit, powerful fours, and game-changing wickets were falling. A game full of ups and downs were finally Andre Russell 70(31)*, put an end to all the entropy and finished the game for Kolkata Knight Riders with 33 balls to spare.

Attacking starts by Punjab, but a dominating end by Kolkata.

Punjab Kings started the match with a powerful tone and momentum but soon started losing wickets. Umesh Yadav (4/23) who is in his prime form this season, along with Tim Southee (2/36) destroyed the whole batting line-up of Kolkata Knight Riders with the help of Sunil Narine and Shivam Mavi. Punjab Kings who at a stage were looking to score a decent total collapsed at a small total of 137 with 10 balls still left in the inning. The only batter to cross thirty run marks was Bhanuka Rajapaksa who had an attacking cameo of 34 runs in just 9 balls.

Small fight from Punjab, but could do nothing to Rusell-power

Punjab didn’t let it become an easy target for Kolkata Knight Riders. Kagiso Rabada took the early wicket of Ajinkya Rahane and after a magical spell from Rahul Chahar's double-wicket maiden, Kolkata was 51 at a loss of 4 wickets. In serious trouble. But after that Andre Russell did a cautious and ferocious partnership of 90 runs in 7.3 overs with Sam Billings won the match for Kolkata Knight Riders. Andre Russell played with a strike rate of 225.80 with 8 powerful sixes and 2 boundaries.

Mayank Agarwal: "We didn't bat well enough. That's where it started. We showed some real fight with the ball initially but then Dre Russ came in and got going. Credit to him for that. It was a 170-ish wicket. I thought we started well but couldn't capitalize, a few soft dismissals. But a game like this at the start of the tournament is fine. I thought the bowlers pulled the game back really well, to get 4 wickets for 50-odd runs. But Russell took the game away from us. A lot of positives for us to take away."

Kolkata Knight Riders after this victory sit on the top of the points table by winning two matches in the tournament so far. They’ll play their next match against the Mumbai Indians on 6th April now. While Punjab Kings who are in the 7th spot in the points table will play their next match against Chennai Super Kings on 3rd April, two back-to-back matches for them.