Punjab Kings’ Yuzvendra Chahal and teammates celebrate a wicket during the IPL 2025 match against Kolkata Knight Riders, at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur, in Chandigarh on April 15, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Punjab Kings has produced extremes on the last two occasions it has met Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. Last year, the Kings completed a record chase of 262, and on Tuesday, the home side defended the lowest total in the tournament’s history — 111.
Erupting in joy
The spectators here at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium leaped in joy when Marco Jansen cleaned up Andre Russell as the Knight Riders fell 16 runs short of the target.
Yuzvendra Chahal led the home team’s historic fightback, claiming four for 28, including key wickets of Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Ajinkya Rahane, who put on a 55-run third wicket stand after the openers fell early.
The duo played a few classic drives and seemed to steer the team to a win and two points comfortably.
However, Chahal, brought in the seventh over, claimed Rahane off his fourth ball and had Raghuvanshi caught in the next over.
Flurry of wickets
Glenn Maxwell then had Venkatesh Iyer struck in front before Chahal came back to have Rinku Singh stumped and Ramandeep Singh caught off the next ball.
Andre Russell hit the leg-spinner for 16 runs, threatening to take the game away. However, Punjab’s bowlers were right on the money and didn’t let the game slip away.
Earlier, Harshit Rana triggered a top-order collapse as Kolkata shot down Punjab for 111.
He claimed three for 25 inside the PowerPlay as the Kings lost four wickets before the fielding restrictions ended.
Despite the early wickets, Punjab batters persisted in attacking.
However, Varun Chakavarathy and Sunil Narine didn’t move away from the stump-to-stump line and picked two wickets each.
Shashank Singh hit a six and a four in his 18 off 17 to take PBKS’ total past the 100-run mark.
However, Vaibhav Arora trapped him in front, and a mix-up between the last two batters found the home team walking back inside the 16 overs.
Published – April 15, 2025 11:04 pm IST
Content Source: www.thehindu.com