Kolkata Knight Riders' hopes of playoffs qualification were blown away as Lucknow Super Giants trounced Shreyas Iyer-led side by 75 runs at MCA Stadium in Pune on Saturday night. This was the biggest winning margin of any team in terms of runs this season.
Chasing a tricky 177-run target, Kolkata off to the worst possible start as they managed to score only 25 runs at the end of powerplay with three batters back to the pavilion. A power-packed Lucknow bowling unit then kept mounting the pressure on KKR batters and they failed to find a way out. Andre Russell produced a lone battle, scoring 45 runs off 19 balls, including 5 sixes. But after his dismissal, the inevitable happened and Kolkata were bundled out for 101 in the 15th over. Jason Holder and Avesh Khan picked three wickets each for Lucknow.
Also read: IPL 2022 points table after Kolkata vs Lucknow match on May 7; updated orange, purple caps holder
Earlier, Quinton de Kock and Deepak Hooda put up a counter-attacking 71-run stand after KL Rahul departs for a diamond duck.
de Kock blasted 50 runs off 29 balls before he threw his wicket away in search of a big hit. While Deepak Hooda slammed 41 runs off 27 balls. Kolkata bounced back after the dismissal of de Kock and dried up the run flow in the middle overs. Ayush Badoni and Marcus Stoinis failed to accelerate at the start of slog overs. But Stoinis clobbered Shivam Mavi for four sixes in the penultimate over and propelled Lucknow to 176-7.
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