In a thrilling encounter in the Indian Premier League on Saturday, Andre Russell emerged as the standout performer, leading Kolkata Knight Riders to a nail-biting four-run victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad with a blistering knock of 64 not out and two crucial wickets.

 Russell's explosive innings turned the tide for Kolkata Knight Riders after a shaky start, propelling them to a formidable total of 208 for 7. After a slow start, Russell unleashed his power-hitting prowess, smashing seven sixes in his unbeaten 64 off just 25 balls. His innings proved instrumental in KKR's recovery from 123 for 6, providing the late surge that propelled them past the 200-run mark.

 However, Sunrisers Hyderabad mounted a spirited chase, with Heinrich Klaasen leading the charge with a valiant innings of 63 runs. Klaasen's assault threatened to snatch victory away from KKR, but Harshit Rana's composed bowling in the final over ensured Kolkata's triumph in a last-ball thriller.

Russell took 2-25.

 Sunil Narine's economical spell and crucial breakthroughs kept Sunrisers in check during the middle overs, setting the stage for Kolkata's dramatic victory. Despite a fierce fightback from Sunrisers, Kolkata Knight Riders held their nerve to secure a crucial win in the IPL.

 Twin 32s from Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma provided Sunrisers with a solid start, but Russell's brilliance with both bat and ball proved decisive in Kolkata's triumph. With his explosive batting display and impactful bowling, Andre Russell emerged as the hero of the match, guiding Kolkata Knight Riders to a thrilling victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad in a contest that will be remembered for its pulsating finish.

 

Alzarri Joseph, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford and Shai Hope were the only West Indians selected at Tuesday’s 2024 Indian Premier League Auction in Dubai.

Joseph, who has previous IPL experience with the Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans, was the most expensive West Indian as well as the fifth most expensive player, going to the Royal Challengers Bangalore for 11.5 crore (USD 1,386,000 approximately).

West Indies T20I skipper Rovman Powell was the first player up for grabs on Tuesday, going for 7.4 crore (USD 892,000 approximately) to the Rajasthan Royals after a bidding war with the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Sherfane Rutherford was the next West Indian to be picked up, going to the Kolkata Knight Riders for 1.5 crore (USD 181,000 approximately).

ODI skipper Shai Hope earned a maiden IPL contract, going for 75 lakh (USD 90,500) to the Delhi Capitals.

Australian pacer Mitchell Starc is now the most expensive player in IPL history after being sold to the Kolkata Knight Riders for 24.75 crore (USD 2,982,000 approximately).

Starc broke the previous record of 20.50 crore (USD 2,470,000 approximately) set earlier in the evening when the Sunrisers Hyderabad outbid the Royal Challengers Bangalore for Starc’s teammate and World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins.

New Zealand All-rounder Darryl Mitchell went for 14 crore (USD 1,687,000 approximately) to defending champions Chennai Super Kings while Indian pacer Harshal Patel went to the Punjab Kings for 11.75 crore (USD 1,412,000 approximately) to round out the top five buys.

Former Australia all-rounder Tom Moody has stated that Gautam Gambhir was pivotal in Kolkata Knight Riders retaining Andre Russell and Sunil Narine for the 2024 season of the Indian Premier League.

Gambhir has returned to the IPL franchise as a mentor for the 2024 IPL season.

KKR on Sunday retained Russell and Narine along with Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Jason Roy, Nitish Rana, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Shreyas Iyer, Sunil Narine, Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Venkatesh Iyer.

Russell joined KKR in 2014, while Narine joined in 2012 and both have been mainstays in the team since then.

“They both have been phenomenal cricketers for KKR. I feel that Gambhir has been quite pivotal in the retention of Russell and Narine. Gambhir understands them, he’s played with them, he’s captained them and he’ll be able to get the best out of them,” said Moody to ESPNCricinfo.

However, Moody also revealed their hesitation regarding Russell’s physical condition instead of his performance. Russell scored 227 runs in 14 matches while picking seven wickets for KKR in IPL 2023.

“I think we’ll see a different outcome in 2024 with regards to what Russell brings to the table. The only hesitation I have is not skill. It’s whether he can hold together physically because we’ve seen him break down on a couple of occasions over recent years and it’s been quite alarming. His bowling has been pretty limited as well, and they haven’t had the access to his full quota of overs,” Moody added.

Nicholas Pooran once again played a starring role to help the Lucknow Super Giants beat the Kolkata Knight Riders by one run at Eden Gardens on Saturday and seal a playoff spot.

After KKR won the toss and elected to field first, LSG, propelled by an aggressive 58 from Pooran, posted 176-8 off their 20 overs.

Pooran’s knock came off just 30 balls and included four fours and five sixes. He was well supported by Quinton De Kock (28) and Prerak Mankad (27).

Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur and Vaibhav Arora all took two wickets, each, for the Knight Riders.

Then, despite a fighting 67* from Rinku Singh and 45 from Jason Roy, KKR finished their reply 175-7 off 20 overs, falling agonizingly short of the win.

Ravi Bishnoi led the way with the ball for Lucknow with 2-13 from his four overs while Yash Thakur also took a pair of wickets.

 

 

 

 

Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal narrowly missed out on his second hundred of the 2023 Indian Premier League season, making 98* to help the Rajasthan Royals secure a dominant nine-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens on Thursday.

The Royals first restricted the Knight Riders to 149-8 off their 20 overs after winning the toss and choosing to field.

KKR’s effort was led by a 47-ball 57 from Venkatesh Iyer that included a pair of fours and four sixes.

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal led the way with the ball once again for the Royals, taking 4-25 from his four overs.

Chahal also made history with the wicket of KKR captain Nitish Rana, becoming the leading wicket-taker in IPL history with his 184th scalp, passing West Indian great Dwayne Bravo.

New Zealand quick Trent boult took 2-15 in three overs in support of Chahal.

The Royals were then dominant in their reply, needing only 13.1 overs to reach 151-1.

Jaiswal, who made the fastest fifty in IPL history when he brought up the milestone off just 13 deliveries, finished 98* off 47 balls. He hit 12 fours and five sixes.

Royals captain Sanju Samson ended unbeaten on 48.

Rajasthan are now third in the table with 12 points from as many games played.

 

 

A well composed fifty from captain Nitish Rana and a crucial 42 from Andre Russell helped the Kolkata Knight Riders win an exciting last-ball thriller over the Punjab Kings in their Indian Premier League (IPL) fixture at Eden Gardens on Monday.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, the Kings posted 179-7 off their 20 overs thanks to a top-score of 57 off 47 balls from captain Shikhar Dhawan.

Spinner Varun Chakravarthy led the way with 3-26 from his four overs while pacer Harshit Rana took 2-33 from three overs for the Knight Riders.

In reply, captain Nitish Rana made a 38 ball 51 while Andre Russell contributed 42 and Jason Roy 38 as the Knight Riders successfully reached 182-5 off their 20 overs.

Russell’s knock came off just 23 balls and included a 20-run penultimate over leaving the Knight Riders needing six to win off the last over.

The Jamaican fell off the penultimate ball of the match with KKR needing two to win before Rinku Singh, who finished 21* off 10 balls, hit the final ball bowled by Arshdeep Singh for four to seal the win.

Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar took 2-23 off his four overs for Punjab.

 

Explosive West Indies batsman Johnson Charles has been called up by Kolkata Knight Riders for the remaining matches of the 2023 IPL season.

In what will be his first stint in the IPL, the 34-year-old Charles joins KKR as a replacement for Litton Das, who departs to represent Bangladesh in a three-match ODI series against Ireland from May 9-14. He was contracted by KKR at a cost of USD$60,000.

Charles returned to the West Indies set up in October 2022 after a six-year absence from the team.  In March 2023, he exploded scoring a 39-ball ton against South Africa and is expected to provide some stability to the KKR line-up that has struggled this season. KKR with only three wins from their nine matches so far this season are currently eighth in the 10-team league.

He will team up with former West Indies players Andre Russell and Sunil Narine in the KKR line-up

 

 

 

 

 

Vijay Shankar's half-century helped the Gujarat Titans to a comfortable seven-wicket triumph over the Kolkata Knights Riders at Eden Gardens on Saturday.

Rinku Singh famously smashed five sixes in the last over to earn Kolkata victory the last time these sides met, but this time Shubman Gill and Vijay Shankar took the acclaim as Gujarat cruised to their 180 target for a third straight win.

Gujarat won the toss and put Kolkata in to bat first, and after a 45-minute rain delay, Rahmanullah Gurbaz powered his way to 81 off just 39 deliveries to take the Knights Riders to 135 off 15.2 overs before he was caught at deep midwicket by Rashid Khan off Noor Ahmad's bowling.

Andre Russell (34 from 19) and Rinku (19 off 20) also chipped in with late cameos as Kolkata finished on 179/7, while Mohammed Shami (3-33) impressed with the ball for the Titans.

Gujarat's chase got off to a strong start thanks to Gill as he combined with Wriddhiman Saha (10 off 10) and captain Hardik Pandya (26 from 20) to take the Titans on the way to victory.

Gill (49) was eventually dismissed on the verge of his half-century when he skied Sunil Narine's delivery to Russell, but Shankar and David Miller (32 from 18) would finish the job with two overs remaining.

Kolkata's powerplay woes continue

The Knights Riders are the only team to concede at least 50 runs in all nine of their matches so far this season, an unwanted run that is the longest in IPL history.

Kolkata's batsmen are averaging a boundary every 4.8 balls, the most often of all IPL teams, but their bowlers again failed to live up to expectations as they fell to a fifth defeat in six matches.

Shankar haunts Kolkata again

Shankar's 51 off 24 balls made him the second non-opener to score two half-centuries against the Knight Riders in an IPL season after Suresh Raina in 2017.

The batsman has hit 10 sixes against Kolkata across both games, the joint third-highest in one season against the Knights Riders.

A quickfire 56 from Jason Roy helped Kolkata Knight Riders to a 21-run victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

RCB looked like they might be able to chase down their target of 201 after Virat Kohli (54) threatened to outdo Roy, but once wickets started to fall the hosts ran out of steam quickly.

Roy brought up his 50 from just 22 balls, while Narayan Jagadeesan (27) played a supporting role, but the latter became the first wicket to fall as he tried to hit Vijaykumar Vyshak for six, instead finding David Willey for a simple catch on the boundary.

Vyshak (2-41) then clattered the leg stump of Roy in the same over to give RCB another boost as they looked to get back in to the game.

Captain Nitish Rana (48 from 21 balls) was dropped twice and made RCB pay as he blitzed some boundaries, before finally being caught well by Vyshak off the bowling of Wanindu Hasaranga (2-24).

Venkatesh Iyer (31) was also gone just two balls later after hitting one straight up in the air for Glenn Maxwell to take, while Mohammed Siraj bowled Andre Russell for just one in the penultimate over.

Rinku Singh (18 not out) and David Wiese (12no) added some welcome late boundaries to the end of the innings and set a target just beyond 200, but the reply started well for RCB.

Kohli and Faf Du Plessis (17) hit 30 from the first two overs, though the South African was out in the third as he hit Suyash Sharma to Rinku at long-on.

Suyash (2-30) had another soon after when he trapped Shahbaz Ahmed (2) lbw, and Maxwell (5) was not far behind as he hit a soft shot off Varun Chakravarthy straight to Wiese.

Mahipal Lomror was nicely dovetailing with Kohli as he knocked 34 from 18 balls before finding Russell's safe hands on the boundary as he tried to slog Chakravarthy (3-27).

Hope seemed to be over for the hosts when Kohli hit Russell to deep mid-wicket, only for Venkatesh to take the catch, while Suyash Prabhudessai (10) was run out and Hasaranga added just five before departing.

Once Dinesh Karthik has fallen to Chakravarthy for 22, the writing was on the wall as the Knight Riders clinched just their third win of the season.

Roy wracks up runs

England batter Roy struck 56 to bring up his fourth 50+ score in the IPL; and has now scored 160 runs so far in this, his fourth season, his highest of any prior IPL campaign.

Roy hit four fours and five sixes on Wednesday, with no other batter on either team hitting as many maximums.

Kohli notches another 50

The RCB captain was not quite as explosive as Roy, taking 37 balls to make his 54 and not hitting any sixes (six fours), but Kohli still set the table for what could have been a decent stab at reaching 201 for his team, though it fizzled out fairly rapidly.

This was his fifth 50+ score of the season, the joint-most of any batter (with team-mate Du Plessis), while it was his 54th 50+ score in the competition's history, second to only David Warner (63).

Ajinkya Rahane played a starring role as Chennai Super Kings moved top of the Indian Premier League after beating Kolkata Knight Riders by 49 runs.

Rahane knocked an impressive 71 from just 29 balls - including five sixes - while Devon Conway and Shivam Dube also brought up 50 as the Kings recorded their third straight victory at Eden Gardens.

After the Knight Riders elected to bowl, Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad ensured a steady start for the Kings, who were 59-0 at the end of the Powerplay.

Suyash Sharma eventually broke the stand when he bowled Gaikwad for 35, but Conway and Rahane kept the Kings on track - the former bringing up the half-century off 34 balls.

Varun Chakaravarthy eventually claimed Conway for 59, but the Rahane-Dube partnership chalked up a combined 85 off 32 balls.

Kulwant Khejroliya eventually bowled Dube and Ravindra Jadeja, but Rahane was unbeaten as the Kings finished at 235-4.

But the Knight Riders' record chase stalled early on as they lost Sunil Narine and Jagadeesan Narayan inside the opening two overs.

Jason Roy boosted their quest with three successive sixes from Moeen Ali on his way to reaching 50 off just 19 balls, before eventually falling to Maheesh Theekshana for 61 (off 26).

Singh embarked on a late rally with an unbeaten 55 from 33 balls, but it proved academic as the Knight Riders fell short at 186/8 and suffered their fourth successive defeat.

Rahane leads the way

Rahane played an instrumental role in moving the Super Kings to the IPL summit. The former India captain top-scored with a quickfire 71 from just 29 balls.

Forming solid partnerships alongside Conway and Dube, he hit 11 boundaries during his impressive stand, including five stunning sixes.

Another 50 for Conway

The form of Conway has been pivotal in his side's impressive streak of form. Indeed, he has now scored a half-century in each of the Super Kings' last four victories.

Taking his tally of runs in this season's IPL to 314, Conway is second to only Faf du Plessis (405), who is also the only player to better his number of half-centuries in the competition (five).

Delhi Capitals finally picked up their first win of the Indian Premier League season as they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets on Thursday.

The Capitals had previously come out on the wrong side of all five of their matches, but an impressive display with the ball edged them to a nervy win to alleviate their early-season struggles, while Kolkata have now lost three on the bounce.

After a rain delay, David Warner won the toss and put the Knight Riders into bat, a decision that quickly paid dividends as his bowlers tore through Kolkata's top order to leave them three wickets down in the powerplay, though opener Jason Roy hung in to add 43 from 39 balls before he was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav.

Delhi's bowlers continued to dominate as the Knight Riders' innings crumbled, with Anrich Nortje (2-20) and Ishant Sharma (4-19) leading the charge as Kolkata were all out for just 127.

Warner reached his half-century off 33 balls to take Delhi to 93-4, before he was dismissed in a wicket maiden from Varun Chakravarthy in the 14th over, giving the Knight Riders some hope.

Those hopes were boosted as Delhi picked up just 23 for the loss of two wickets in the next five overs, but needing seven off the last, Axar Patel did just enough to get his team over the line.

Knight Riders' powerplay struggles continue

Kolkata lost three wickets within the first six overs to severely hamper their innings, and not for the first time, with the Knight Riders' 15 wickets lost in the powerplay in this season's IPL the highest of any team.

The target they set was just too small, despite a last-ditch effort from their bowlers, and Kolkata have work to do with the bat if they are to end this losing streak.

Warner plays a captain's innings

Warner's 57 runs off 41 balls means he is now the leading run scorer against Kolkata in IPL history, while he also moved to eight half-centuries against the Knight Riders, tied for the most alongside Suresh Raina.

The Australian went at a strike rate of 139 on his way to a fourth score of 50 or more in this year's IPL.

Arjun Tendulkar tasted victory on his IPL debut as superstar father Sachin sang the praises of Mumbai Indians' new opening bowler.

The young Tendulkar made a century on his first-class debut for Goa against Rajasthan in December, and the 23-year-old chalked up another career landmark when he made his bow on the T20 big stage on Sunday.

It came in an impressive five-wicket win for Mumbai over Kolkata Knight Riders, with Tendulkar playing what was ultimately a minor role in the team's success.

He delivered the first over of the match and finished with 0-17 from two overs, before Mumbai's batting meant he was not required to play an active role in the run chase.

Proud dad Sachin Tendulkar wrote on Twitter: "Arjun, today you have taken another important step in your journey as a cricketer. As your father, someone who loves you and is passionate about the game, I know you will continue to give the game the respect it deserves and the game will love you back.

"You have worked very hard to reach here, and I am sure you will continue to do so. This is the start of a beautiful journey. All the best!"

Sachin Tendulkar played 78 matches in the IPL, scoring 2,334 runs at an average of 34.84 and twice topping 550 runs in a season.

He is widely regarded as India's greatest cricketer and holds the record for the most Test runs, scoring 15,921 in 200 matches in the longest format.

Long-time West Indies rival Brian Lara also celebrated the arrival of another Tendulkar in the IPL, posting a message of "Congrats" on Instagram alongside a picture of himself and a much younger Arjun.

Lara is coach of Sunrisers Hyderabad, who happen to be Mumbai's next opponents, with that game scheduled for Tuesday.

Venkatesh Iyer's maiden T20 century was in vain as Mumbai Indians produced an excellent run chase to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by five wickets on Sunday.

Iyer took over as the leading run-scorer in the IPL with a magnificent 104 from 51 balls in KKR's 185-6 at the Wankhede Stadium.

The left-hander struck nine sixes and another six boundaries, facing only 49 balls to get to three figures as he ended a 15-year wait for a KKR century since Brendon McCullum achieved the feat.

He finished on the losing side, though, as Ishan Kishan (58 from 25) smashed a quickfire half-century and Suryakumar Yadav (43 off 25) returned to form to give Mumbai back-to-back wins.

Iyer put on a show after Cameron Green and the excellent Piyush Chawla (1-19) dismissed Narayan Jagadeesan and Rahmanullah Gurbaz respectively in the powerplay.

The in-form number three carted the Indians attack to all parts, dominating a fourth-wicket stand of 50 with Shardul Thakur in a masterclass before finally falling to Riley Meredith soon after bringing up a swashbuckling hundred.

There was a late flurry from Andre Russell (21 not out from 11), but it soon became apparent KKR were short of runs as Kishan and Rohit Sharma – batting as an impact player while struggling with a stomach bug – got Mumbai off to a flyer.

Suyash Sharma (2-27) had Rohit (20) superbly caught by Umesh Yadav to end a partnership of 65 in the fifth over, with Kishan hitting five sixes and as many fours before he was bowled by Varun Chakravarthy.

Suryakumar and Tilak Varma (30) then put on 60 to put the Indians well on their way to victory before Tim David (24no from 13) got the team home with 14 balls to spare.

 

Iyer takes orange cap in style

Iyer took the Indians attack apart, scoring KKR's first century since current England Test head coach McCullum bludgeoned a brutal 158 back in April 2008.

The 28-year-old's hundred was the second of this tournament, two days after Harry Brook's 100 for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Iyer's exploits ensured he took the top scorer's orange cap from Shikhar Dhawan, with 234 runs from five visits to the crease at an average of 58.50.

Suryakumar steps up as captain

It had been a miserable IPL so far for Mumbai's Suryakumar, but he was back in the runs skippering the side with Rohit unable to play a full part.

He missed out on a half-century after nicking Thakur behind, but looked in good touch as he cleared the rope three times and hit another four boundaries.

Harry Brook scored a magnificent maiden Indian Premier League century to set up a 23-run win for Sunrisers Hyderabad over Kolkata Knight Riders.

The England batter failed in his first three IPL knocks, but he struck a sublime unbeaten 100 from 55 balls to get Sunrisers up to an imposing total of 228-4 at Eden Gardens on Friday.

Brook hit three sixes and 12 fours to register the first IPL hundred of the season, while captain Aiden Markram blasted 50 from 26 deliveries and Abhishek Sharma made a brisk 32 after KKR skipper Nitish Rana put Sunrisers in.

Rapid half-centuries from Rana (75 from 41) and Rinku Singh (58 off 31) gave the Knight Riders hope, but they fell short on 205-7 as Hyderabad secured a second successive win following back-to-back defeats.

Andre Russell (3-22) dismissed Mayank Agarwal and Rahul Tripathi in his first over before the all-rounder left the field with an injury, with Brook and Markram then putting on 72 to silence a huge crowd.

Brook was dropped by Suyash Sharma on 45 and that proved to be costly, while Markram cleared the rope five times before he was caught off the bowling of Varun Chakravarthy in the deep.

The classy Brook stepped on the accelerator to reach three figures and Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Rahmanullah Gurbaz at the start of the run chase.

Marco Jansen (2-37) reduced KKR to 20-3 and they were 96-5 when Russell departed, but Rana and Rinku made a game of it with a stand of 69.

Their fireworks were in vain, though, Mayank Markande taking 2-27 and Kumar keeping it tight with 1-29 as KKR suffered a second loss.

Brook pays off part of his price tag

Sunrisers forked out 13.25 crore (£1.325million) to land the sought-after Brook in the auction and he demonstrated exactly why in his fourth IPL match.

Having made only 29 combined in his previous three innings, the 24-year-old carried his bat after reaching 50 off 32 balls and racing to a century from 55.

Brook took 23 off an over from Lockie Ferguson, the runs flowing on both sides of the wicket in a brilliant exhibition of batting.  

Rana in the runs again

Rana registered his 16th IPL half-century in a run-fest, cashing in on a great pitch.

This was his fourth score of 50 or more against Sunrisers, but it was not enough to pull off what would have been a record IPL run chase.

Kolkata Knight Riders picked up their first win of the Indian Premier League season with a crushing 81-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday.

After falling to defeat to Punjab Kings in their opening fixture, the Knight Riders hit back in style at Eden Gardens against an RCB side that beat Mumbai Indians in their opener.

The hosts recovered from a slow start that saw them 89-5 at one point thanks to half-centuries from Shardul Thakur (68 runs off 29 balls) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57 off 44).

Rinku Singh's 46 off 33 balls saw KKR reach 204-7 from their 20 overs, which RCB did not come close to chasing down after losing Virat Kohli (21) off the bowling of Sunil Narine.

Varun Chakravarthy took the big wicket of top-scoring Faf du Plessis (23) a few balls later en route to finishing with 4-15, while Suyash Sharma (3-30) also impressed for Kolkata.

KKR are back in action against Gujarat Titans on Sunday, while RCB are up against Lucknow Super Giants the following day.

Winning feeling returns

KKR needed a response and they got it, with this their 17th IPL win against RCB – only against Punjab Kings (20) have they won more times against in the competition.

Bangalore were left with too much to do and struggled to find any momentum thanks in large to the bowling of Chakravarthy, with the visiting side restricted to 123 runs in 17.4 overs.

Sunil shines on milestone occasion

Narine was playing his 150th game for KKR in the competition, becoming the first player to do so for the franchise and the seventh overall for a single team.

He marked the occasion with a couple of wickets at the expense of 16 runs, including that of Kohli in what was a big breakthrough for KKR.

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