Giants decimate Knight Riders

Quinton de Kock laid the platform with a commanding fifty and his pacers then terrorised Kolkata Knight Riders to record a crushing 75-run victory for Licknow Super Giants which put them on top of the table with an IPL play-off berth being a formality now.

For last year’s runners-up KKR, eight points from 11 games with a deflating negative run-rate now puts them closer to the exit door with lacklustre performance and unimaginative captaincy combining for what has turned out to be a disastrous season so far.

Invited to bat, De Kock slammed a 29-ball-50 but Lucknow almost frittered away a solid start before some lusty hitting in a 30-run penultimate over off Shivam Mavi took them to 176 for 7. The LSG bowlers then raised to the occasion to bundle out KKR for 101 in 14.3 overs, despite the heroics of Andre Russell (45 off 19 balls) to gather two crucial points and take their overall total to 16 points in the IPL standing.

KKR remained at the 8th spot after suffering their 7th loss in 11 games. Defending 177, LSG left KKR tottering at 25 for four with four bowlers picking up their first wickets. While Mohsin produced a wicketmaiden to get rid of to Baba Indrajith, Chameera sent back Shreyas Iyer after rattling him with a short and quick delivery.

It has now been an all too familiar script for KKR skipper whose discomfort while facing quick bouncers is well-documented and national coach Rahul Dravid would only be worried with this glaring technical deficiency. Aaron Finch too perished as his miscued pull was poached by de Kock as KKR slipped to 23 for 3 in the first six overs.

Nitish Rana was then cleaned up by Avesh Khan with a yorker as KKR looked down the barrels. Russell then used his brute force to hit Holder all across the park. One was whacked at midwicket for a maximum, the second one was slapped to deep, while a flat-batted pull earned him another six and the last one was a four over short third.

After amassing 25 off the Holder over, Russell produced another maximum off Ravi Bishnoi as KKR reached 64 for 4 in 10 overs. He and Sunil Narine (22 off 12) produced a small partnership but once Russell was out to Avesh Khan in the 13th over, it became a downward slide for KKR as they folded in 14.3 overs.

Brief scores: LSG 176/7 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 50; KKR bowling: Andre Russell 2-22) beat KKR 101 in 14.3 overs (Andre Russell 45; LSG bowling: Avesh Khan 3-19, Jason Holder 3-31) by 75 runs.