Live blog - IPL 2024 - KKR vs PBKS - Narine, Salt start thrashing in ...

9m ago

PBKS brought in Prabhsimran Singh as Impact Sub to replace Arshdeep at the start of the chase. Second over, Prabhsimran whipped and ramped Harshit Rana for six.

Next over, he went across early, and scooped KKR's debutant Chameera over short fine leg for six more. The third delivery was swatted over cover. When Chameera went really slow at 108kph, Prabhsimran was ready and waiting. Six over long-off! Sixth ball? He dances down, and chips over the bowler's head to take 23 off Chameera. PBKS 45 for 0 after three. The chase is on!

39m ago

KKR have scaled 261 for 6. The is the fifth time this season that teams batting first have crossed 250. KKR have done that twice, and SRH have achieved that three times.

Ask Andrew Fidel Fernando, and he thinks batters are smacking the ball around like it has taken away their first-born, and it's not pretty. Fidel has a plea: It's too many runs, somebody make it stop.

54m ago

I'll take credit for that tongue-twister headline. But the inspiration only came from Shreyas Iyer's treatment of Sam Curran off the last four balls of the 18th over:

A pull over square leg off a short ball, a drive through cover, a flick over deep square, and a slice over point.

The KKR captain eventually departs for 28 off ten balls, as he finds deep third in attempting to scythe Arshdeep in the 19th over. KKR 246 for 4 after 18.3. In comes Rinku to blow the horn further.

1h ago

1h ago

We are 13 overs into KKR's innings. They have crashed 169 already. Narine has departed, but it hardly ends there. Russell has replaced him after Curran bowled Salt for 75 halfway into the 13th over, and already upper-cut Curran for four off his second ball.

244 Our forecaster gives KKR this score after 20 overs. Remember, we are in a record IPL batting season already. Brace for more!

1h ago

PBKS finally hold on to a catch. Jonny Bairstow, stationed at long-on, takes one low, as Narine went heaving at a wrong 'un from Chahar. Narine departed after pumping 71 off just 32 balls. That wicket came in the 11th over, and PBKS have, since then, used spin to slow KKR down.

KKR 151 for 1 after 12.

Salt reaches his third fifty of the season off the fourth ball of the ninth over. He waits for a legbreak from Chahar to arrive outside off, and hammers it between long-off and deep point. He is on 52 after nine overs, albeit after getting two lives. But sometimes even luck tends to favour you when you opt for more risks. KKR 118 for 0 after nine, with Narine having clubbed 60 from 27.

1h ago

2h ago

Off the fifth ball of the last over of the powerplay, Arshdeep Singh angles one across to on the fuller side of a length just outside off. Phil Salt, frustrated after three dots in a row, looks to loft, but finds his England team-mate Sam Curran waiting at mid-off. Curran spills the catch, with the ball coming on towards his chest. Salt dropped on 34. KKR 76 for 0 after six.

223 That is what our forecaster gives KKR after 20 overs today. Going by recent history, you could safely bet on more, though.

2h ago

This is the sequence of the third and fourth overs. KKR are 59 for 0 after four overs. While Salt has rubbed 24 runs off 12 balls, his partner Narine has eight more from the same number of deliveries.

Our senior reporter Nagraj Gollapudi went hunting for the methods behind Narine's madness. And he ended up discovering about the KKR thrasher's art of whack, boom, kapow.

11.91 Run rate of the partnership between Salt and Narine this season. That is the second-highest for any opening pair to have faced at least 120 balls.

In fact, KKR also have the second-best run rate of 10.97 in the powerplay this IPL.

Of course there are no prizes for guessing that SRH top both the above numbers in IPL 2024.

Sam Curran again walks out to lead PBKS, with Shikhar Dhawan expected to be fit only for their next game. And PBKS opt to bowl first. Bairstow replaces Livingstone for them. Shreyas Iyer, KKR's captain, says Starc cut his finger in the last game. So Chameera replaces Starc.

KKR: Salt, Narine, Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Rinku, Russell, Ramandeep, Varun, Harshit and Chameera

PBKS: Bairstow, Curran, Rossouw, Jitesh, Shashank, Ashutosh, Harpreet, Harshal, Rabada, Arshdeep and Chahar

3h ago

He came into KKR's dressing room with INR 24.5cr in his pocket. But seven games later, he has leaked as many as 287 runs across 25 overs. The economy rate is at 11.48 - the highest for anyone to have bowled at least 25 overs this IPL. The average is 47.83, which is right up in the stars. And Rajan Raj from Eden Gardens reports that Starc didn't practice in the lead-up the today's game, even as Dushmantha Chameera gets his KKR cap from none other than... Starc!

Two teams at the opposite ends of the points table. KKR, the hosts, seem to have so much power that each time the ball crash-lands in the stands or beyond. But PBKS, the visitors, look so powerless that even luck seems to desert them. They have lost four in a row, but have a look at the margin of those defeats: three wickets (five balls remaining), nine runs, three wickets (one ball remaining), and two runs. In short, a matter of just two or three balls going either way.