Cricadium Staff 
Kings XI Punjab, at their designated home ground of the Holkar Stadium, Indore, hosted Kolkata Knight Riders in the 44th match of IPL 2018. Both teams were searching for a victory to strengthen their case for a playoff spot. In what turned out to be a run feast, KKR rolled over KXIP and achieved the much-needed win.
Ravichandran Ashwin won the toss and elected to field. The pitch in Indore had proved to be a slow one in the last game but not this time. The batsmen enjoyed a wonderful time on a surface that had hardly anything in it for the bowlers. Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine got KKR off to a rollicking start. Lynn scored 27 off 17 before getting out in the 6th over as the score reached 59/1 after the powerplay.
Narine kept going and his party was extended as he brought up his fifty off 26 balls. Uthappa too combined well and kept the assault going. Andrew Tye finally ended Narine’s stay in the 12th over as the opener departed for 75 off 36 balls. The bowler bagged another in the same over by removing Uthappa for 24. Dinesh Karthik And Andre Russell ensured the scoring rate was up as KKR reached 140/3 after 13 overs.
The duo added 65 runs from 31 balls before Russell was dismissed for 31 courtesy Tye who claimed his 4th wicket. Karthik continued the hammering and notched up his fifty off 22 balls. Nitish Rana and Karthik fell at the slog overs but KKR had powered their way to 245/6 after 20 overs which proved to be the highest score of the season as well as the highest ever for the franchise in the history of the league.
KXIP’s chances of chasing the mammoth total rested heavily on the opening pair of Chris Gayle and KL Rahul. Both of them went on the offensive from the outset as the score read 51 after 5 overs. But Russell claimed the prized wicket of Gayle in the 6th over and to add to KXIP’s misery, Mayank Agarwal departed off the first ball.
KL Rahul extended his brilliant run of form and scored another half-century. But when Narine accounted for his wicket for 66 off 29 balls in the 9th over, it was all downhill for the hosts. The wickets kept falling and even though Aaron Finch and Ashwin played decent knocks, the required rate proved to be too much. Ultimately, KXIP were halted to 214/8 as KKR won the match by 31 runs.
Match Summary
Kings XI Punjab won the toss and opted to bowl first
Kolkata Knight Riders: 245/6 in 20 overs
Sunil Narine 75 (36), Dinesh Karthik 50 (23)
Andrew Tye 41/4 (4), Mohit Sharma 40/1 (4)
Kings XI Punjab: 214/8 in 20 overs
KL Rahul 66 (29), Ravichandran Ashwin 45 (22)
Andre Russell 41/3 (4), Prasidh Krishna 31/2 (4)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 31 runs
Player of the Match: Sunil Narine
Here are the best tweets that panned out during the course of the match
What insane hitting Indore is witnessing today….Pitch is good but not as flat as the #KKR batsmen have made it look. Highest IPL 2018 score on the cards. #KXIPvKKR #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 12, 2018
Kolkata Knight Riders' 245/6 today is……
Highest IPL total at Indore
Highest IPL total for KKR
Highest IPL total vs KXIP
Highest total in IPL2018
4th highest total in all IPL matches#KXIPvKKR #KKRvKXIP #IPL2018 #IPL— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) May 12, 2018
It took 10 years for Kolkata Knight Riders to surpass their total of 222/3 in the first ever IPL match.
However, no KKR player has scored a century after Brendon McCullum's 158* in that game. #IPL2018 #KXIPvKKR
— Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) May 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/rameshsrivats/status/995263630408007681
#KXIPvKKR
Narine opening the batting AND opening the bowling.
In my childhood that only happened when one guy owned the bat, ball and promised to buy lime juice for everyone.— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) May 12, 2018
Batsmen with 500+ runs in IPL 2018:
521 Rishabh Pant
504* Lokesh RahulThis is the first IPL season when the first two players to complete 500 runs are Indians! #KXIPvKKR
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) May 12, 2018
Narine should be the Man of the Match, not for scoring runs but for sending Mujeeb back injured. Turned the match on its head..
— Alagappan Vijayakumar (@IndianMourinho) May 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/SirJadejaaaa/status/995280313357041664
Well played @DineshKarthik and his @KKRiders boys. Each one contributed incl the last ball 6. From their lowest against @mipaltan to their best today, this is sport for you. Redemption song. #KXIPvKKR
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) May 12, 2018
Excellent comeback today by @KKRiders after the previous game against MI. Requires a lot of character to come back from a loss like that. Kings 11 meanwhile have gotten themselves into a tricky situation after beginning well in the tournament #KXIPvKKR
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) May 12, 2018
Very peculiar game. #KingsXI are scoring at well over 10/over and yet it has rarely, if ever, been a contest!!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 12, 2018
Was great fun watching @klrahul11 bat. So much class.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 12, 2018
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