Lucknow Super Giants ensured their spot in the Playoffs after a dramatic win over Kolkata Knight Riders. The match started in a one-sided manner but took a late turn during the last five as Rinku Singh and Sunil Narine almost took Kolkata to an improbable win before faltering with just one ball to go due to an exceptional catch by Evin Lewis.
Lucknow Super Giants 210/0 in 20 overs
K.L. Rahul won the toss and decided to bat. Lucknow brought in Evin Lewis, Manan Vohra, and Krishnappa Gowtham for Ayush Badoni, Dushmantha Chameera and the injured Krunal Pandya. Kolkata replace Ajinkya Rahane, already ruled out of the tournament, with the uncapped Abhijeet Tomar.
It was not a memorable debut for Tomar, who dropped a straightforward catch of Quinton de Kock in the third over. It turned out to be one of the costliest drops in IPL history, as de Kock took the full advantage and delivered a memorable innings.
Kolkata were there in the match for 10 overs, when LSG posted 83/0 with both openers on 41. Then de Kock started to take control. He completed his fifty off 36 balls. By the time Rahul reached his fifty, de Kock was already on 60; he kept increasing the gap thereafter. Shreyas Iyer rotated his bowlers but could not break the partnership. Even Andre Russell failed to break through.
De Kock completed his hundred off 59 balls in the 18th over, and Lucknow took 46 off the last two overs, de Kock scoring 38 of them on his own. He finished with 140 not out, the third-highest score in IPL history, in 70 balls, with 10 fours and 10 sixes.
Kolkata Knight Riders 208/8 in 20 overs
Mohsin Khan impressed again in the Powerplay, dismissing Venkatesh Iyer and Abhijit Tomar in his first two overs, and Kolkata slumped to 9/2. Nitish Rana and Shreyas took control then took the attack to the opposition. There was a sequence when Kolkata hit seven fours and a six in nine balls, and by the end of the Powerplay, they maintained a run rate of 10.
After Rana fell for a 35-ball 42, Shreyas and Sam Billings built a partnership of 66 runs in 6.3 overs. However, they were dismissed by Marcus Stoinis and Ravi Bishnoi respectively. Russell who could not time the ball, Mohsin bowled another brilliant over. He dismissed Russell to finish with a incredible spell of 4-0-20-3.
Once Russell was gone, not much hope was there for Kolkata, but Rinku and Narine gave them hope. Rinku hit the second ball he faced for four whereas Narine hit his second ball for a six. They scored 17 in the 18th over, which included a six each from each of Rinku and Narine. At that stage, Kolkata needed 38 in two overs. Two more sixes in the 19th over left them 21 to get off the final over.
Rinku (40 in 15 balls) took 4, 6, 6, 2 off the first four balls from Stoinis, bringing down the equation to three from two balls. He went for a big shot to finish the match, but Lewis came up with a one-handed diving catch after covering significant ground. Umesh Yadav came out to score three off the last ball, but Stoinis bowled him with a yorker.
Brief scores
Lucknow Super Giants 210/0 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 140*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 208/8 (Shreyas Iyer 50; Mohsin Khan 3-20) by 2 runs. Player of the Match: Quinton de Kock.