Kolkata, May 20 (IANS): West Indies wicket-keeper batter Nicholas Pooran led Lucknow Super Giants' fightback with a quickfire fifty (58 off 30) and guided them to 176/8 against Kolkata Knight Riders in Match No. 68 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Eden Gardens, here on Saturday.
LSG were reeling at 73/5 after 10.1 overs but Pooran stitched an attacking partnership of 74 runs for the sixth wicket with Ayush Badoni (25 off 21) and helped them post a fighting total. The likes of Shardul Thakur (2-27), Sunil Narine (2-28) and Vaibhav Arora (2-30) picked two wickets each for KKR.
Asked to bat first, LSG had a sedate start before Harshit Rana got rid of Karan Sharma in the third over. Karan ended up getting late on the hook to a short ball and handed Shardul Thakur an easy catch.
However, the arrival of Prerak Mankad at the crease made Quinton De Cock open up too. Both De Cock and Mankad hammered the KKR bowlers for the rest of the Power-play, scoring 40 runs in 21 balls as LGG were 54/1 after 6 overs.
It was Vaibhav Arora, who brought KKR back in the game by removing both Mankad (26 off 20) and the in-form batter Marcus Stoinis (0) in the same over. In a must-win game, LSG needed a big contribution from his captain but Krunal Pandya couldn't do much, scoring just nine runs before getting out to Sunil Narine.
Very soon, De Kock (28 off 27) got out and things looked bleak for LSG. Pooran, however, came with positive intent and started on a brisk note. He attacked Varun Chakravarthy but offered a lot of respect to his West Indian teammate Narine while Badoni perfectly played the second fiddle.
LSG were hoping that the two batters would make the most of the death overs but both Badoni and Pooran got out in the 18th and 19th overs respectively. However, thanks to their massive hits before getting out, LSG managed to squeeze 54 off the last 4 overs and managed to reach 176/8 in 20 overs.
Brief scores:
Lucknow Super Giants 176/8 in 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 58; Shardul Thakur 2-27, Sunil Narine 2-28, Vaibhav Arora 2-30) vs Kolkata Knight Riders.