Two years after smashing a rampaging 22-ball half-century against Kings XI Punjab at the Holkar Stadium in Indore to guide Kolkata Knight Riders to 245, KKR captain Dinesh Karthik emulated the score against the same side this time to revive his side from a faltering 63 for three in the 11th over to a competitive 164 for six. Karthik finished with 58 from 29 deliveries laced with eight fours and two sixes, and a strike rate of 200.
Karthik was under pressure as a batsman and a captain in the ongoing IPL. He partially ticked off the second box with a win against Chennai Super Kings and hoping to do the same on Saturday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, but he definitely ticked off the first with a match-turning fifty.
Opting to bat first on the dry wicket, KKR lost Rahul Tripathy and Nitish Rana cheaply. Shubman Gill fell anchor and he executed the role perfectly. He stitched a 49-run stand alongside Eoin Morgan to revive KKR before it was all about Karthik in Abu Dhabi.
He scored all around the park and mostly targetted the pacers. He scored 20 runs off eight deliveries against Chris Jordan and 10 off four against Mohammed Shami, and against Arshdeep Singh he managed 14 off eight.
For KXIP, Arshdeep was particularly impressive in his 1 for 25 in four overs which included a maiden over in the powerplay against Rahul Tripathi and the dismissal of Andre Russell.
"The plan was to keep it simple and execute it. We had to bowl wide against Russell and DK, and that plan paid off. It's all about the execution. It was sticking a bit into the surface at the start. But we bowled the hard lengths and it paid off. The pitch is getting better to bat on, so I think it's a good score to chase," he said after the first innings.
