In a high-scoring match,
Lucknow Super Giants
managed to hold their nerve to beat
Kolkata Knight Riders
by just two runs at the DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday. The win ensured that Lucknow became the second side after Gujarat Titans to make the playoffs with 18 points.
AS IT HAPPENED | SCORECARD | POINTS TABLEChasing 211 runs for victory,
KKR
put up a brave fight ending up with 208/8, finishing their campaign with 12 points.
KKR went in for a sixth opening pair this season, but lost both debutant Abhijeet Tomar, coming in for the injured Ajinkya Rahane, and
Venkatesh Iyer to Mohsin Khan cheaply.
However, skipper
Shreyas Iyer and
Sam Billings did give the charge but the former perished after making a 29-ball 50 as Marcus Stoinis, who had a great game with the ball, broke a dangerous 40-ball 66-run fourth-wicket stand.
Lucknow beat Kolkata
After
Andre Russell failed to fire,
Rinku Singh brought the side close to an unlikely win with a 15-ball 40 but ultimately failed to spoil the night, which definitely belonged to Quinton de Kock.
Shreyas must have thought they were on course as
LSG
made a slow start, getting just 44 runs in the Powerplay. But both Rahul and his opening partner De Kock paced the innings well, raising the tempo to collect 88 runs in the last five overs to walk into the record books, finishing up with 210 for no loss, the highest-ever opening wicket stand in the IPL.
De Kock also sounded a warning to the Indian side weeks before the South African side's scheduled visit to the country for a T20I series by hitting his second IPL ton and remaining undefeated on 140 off 70 balls.
He did wear his luck on the sleeves when Tomar dropped a mistimed skier at third man off Umesh Yadav when the opener was on 12 only.
Billings too dropped a sharp chance off
Sunil Narine when De Kock was on 68, but all these could never distract the South African who threw his arms at anything that was bowled short. De Kock opened up fully after getting his back-to-back half-century against KKR, this time off 36 balls.
He spoiled Varun Chakravarthy's figures hitting him for two sixes and one four in his last over after finding a six reverse sweeping Narine in the previous over. The left-hander pulled Andre Russell for a six and then cut him for a four to get his second IPL century in just 59 balls, the last 50 coming off just 23 balls. He finished with a flourish by taking Tim Southee to the cleaners hitting him for three consecutive sixes.