IPL24: Punjab create history vs KKR in biggest ever chase led by monstrous 6 hitting

 

The current IPL has just passed the mid-season.  In that already 22 times more than 200 runs were scored in one innings.  Now Friday's Kolkata and Punjab match also entered that list.  Till now this match was known as 'Veer-Zara' fight for Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta.  This time the Calcutta-Punjab war went down in history for another reason.  Punjab set the record for highest run chase in IPL as well as T20 history .  Sam Curran led team won by 8 wickets at Eden in breathtaking style .

 Curran won the toss and decided to field.  Usually in Eden it is normal to win by chasing runs.  But even the biggest Punjab fans could not have thought that such a big target could be chased down with few balls still left .  Rajasthan Royals won the highest run chase in the IPL so far.  They won by 226 runs against this Punjab in 2020.  The Knights scored more runs than that on the day.  However, Bairstow led chase topped that target.  The target of 262 runs did not seem like an obstacle to them.

The first innings was completely dominated by the Knights.  In the pair of Narine and Salt, .  The Punjab fielders made their work easier by dropping multiple catches.  76 runs were scored in the power play.  Narine scored a half-century in just 24 balls after hitting Rabada for four.  The century may not have come, but his innings had all the spice of entertainment.  In the end, Narine stopped after a belligerent 71 off 32 balls that included several sublime shots with lovely bat swing that enthralled the 57000 strong crowd in extreme heat at Eden Gardens .  On the one hand, the storm stopped, but Phil Salt's power was still going on.  Salt returned to Curran's fast yorker after an explosive 75 off 37 balls that included several powerpacked hits .  Despite small but useful cameos from Venkatesh Iyer (39), Andre Russell (24) & Shreyas Iyer (28) , the Knights were restricted to 261 runs.  That too seemed small under Bairstow's power.  He remained unbeaten with 108 runs.

 Prabhasimran Singh launched a fierce assault  from the very beginning of the Punjab innings.  Sri Lankan Dushmanta Chamira, who replaced Mitchell Starc, did not make a good debut in front of the packed stadium .  However, no one could stand up to the Punjab openers except one Sunil Narine.  Prabsimran carried out a fierce assault on the KKR bowling to hit 54 off 20 balls . 

At the end, Shashank Singh played like warrior again. He was hitting explosive  sixes as the crowd looked in awe while Bairstow had continued his merry ways smashing an unbeaten 108 off 48 balls  with several monstrous hits. 

 Punjab won the match by 8 wickets with more than one over to spare and Bairstow took the man of the match award after his monstrous knock