Rahuls Fifty and Shahrukhs Sixer win Punjab beat Kolkata by 5 wickets

Punjab finally defeated Kolkata in the last over. Shahrukh Khan gave the team victory by hitting a six in the third ball of the 20th over. Punjab needed 5 runs in the last over, and the ball was given in the hands of Venkatesh Iyer. Iyer got Rahul caught at long off boundary on the second ball. Then the very next ball was picked up by Shahrukh in the air towards long on, where Rahul Tripathi had almost caught the catch by running on the boundary, but the ball went into the hand and came out again and fell straight outside the boundary for 6 runs.

Chakraborty made KKR return

Chasing the target, Punjab started well and Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul added 70 runs for the first wicket. Varun Chakraborty did the work of breaking this partnership by dismissing Mayank (40). In his very next over, he also showed the way to the pavilion by dismissing Nicholas Pooran (12).

Then said Iyer's bat

KKR got the first blow in the form of Shubman Gill (7) and his wicket came in the account of Arshdeep Singh. After this, Rahul Tripathi and Venkatesh Iyer took the innings by adding 72 runs for the second wicket. The wicket of Tripathi (34) came in Bishnoi's account. Venkatesh Iyer, who was in excellent form, scored 67 runs off 49 balls while Oen Morgan was dismissed for (2).

middle order flop again

KKR's middle order disappointed once again. Captain ON Morgan (2), Tim Seifert (2) and Dinesh Karthik (11) making IPL debut for Kolkata returned to the pavilion after scoring runs. For KKR, Nitish Rana scored 31 runs off 18 balls while batting explosively. Arshdeep Singh managed to take 3 and Ravi Bishnoi 2 for PBKS.

both teams

KKR - Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Oen Morgan (c), Tim Southee, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Tim Seifert, Varun Chakravarthy, Shivam Mavi.

PBKS - KL Rahul (w/c), Mayank Agarwal, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepak Hooda, Fabian Allen, Nathan Ellis, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh

nothing more than victory for punjab

The team of Punjab should come on the field and there is no excitement in the match, it cannot happen. Now that Punjab and Kolkata face each other, both the teams will be looking to register the win with the best. The match for Punjab is to be played in do or die situation, because if the match goes hand in hand, Punjab's dream of reaching the playoffs may be shattered. PBKS have played 11 matches so far and have won only four, while the team has lost in seven. Rahul and Co are at the sixth position in the points table, while KKR are already in the top-4 and would like to win this match and take a step forward towards the knockouts.

middle order is annoying

The problem for Punjab is that the middle order of the team is continuously flopping. Aiden Markram has scored 26, 27 and 42 in the last three matches but he has not been able to convert the starts he got into big scores. Deepak Hooda has also scored just 157 runs in 11 matches. At the same time, Nicholas Pooran is going through the worst phase of his career at this time. In 9 innings of this season, he has scored just 70 runs with his bat at a very mediocre average of 7.78. Against KKR, the team can give a chance to Moises Henriques in place of Pooran and Shahrukh Khan can also be tried in the playing XI.

KKR is completely ready

KKR have done well this season so far. The team has won five matches out of 11 and the team's run rate is also very good as compared to other teams. The good thing for KKR in the last few matches has been that different match-winning players have come out for the team. Apart from Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik has also played well in the death overs when given a chance. However, Captain Morgan is still waiting for the big innings.

Their bowlers are also doing a good job for Kolkata. Varun Chakraborty has taken 11 wickets in 11 matches and Lockie Ferguson has taken 7 wickets in four matches. If the Punjab Kings batsmen want to win the match, then the bowlers of KKR will have to break it.

This record can be made in the match

If KL Rahul manages to hit two sixes against KKR, he will be the first player to hit 100 sixes for PBKS.