Shikhar Dhawan's remarkable unbeaten 99 proved in vain as Rahul Tripathi helped Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first Indian Premier League win this season with an eight-wicket victory over Punjab Kings.

Punjab captain Dhawan, who was dropped twice by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, fell agonisingly short of three figures against his former side, blasting the last ball for six to drag the Kings to 143-9 in Hyderabad.

Mayank Markande had rattled through the Punjab batting line-up with an incredible 4-15 through the middle overs before Dhawan contributed to 52 of the 55-run last-wicket stand with Mohit Rathee (1 not out).

Sam Curran (22) was the only other Kings batter to hit double figures as Marco Jansen (2-16) and Umran Malik (2-32) impressed, although the Sunrisers allowed Punjab back into the game after they were 88-9.

Hyderabad made a stuttering start to their chase as Harry Brook fell for 13 when bowled by Arshdeep Singh (1-20) before Rahul Chahar (1-28) removed Mayank Agarwal (21) to leave the hosts 45-2 after 8.3 overs.

But Tripathi stepped up with an expert 74 from 48 deliveries, combining with Sunrisers skipper Aiden Markram (37 not out) in a vital 100-run partnership to see Hyderabad over the line with 17 balls left.

Bhuvneshwar sets early tone for Sunrisers

Bhuvneshwar (1-33) dismissed Prabhsimran Singh leg before wicket with the first ball of the match to set the tone, albeit his erroneous catching efforts afforded Dhawan two lifelines later in the Kings innings.

Veteran star Bhuvneshwar has dismissed an opening batter 55 times in the IPL, the most by any seamer in history and third among all bowlers (Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh have 61 each).

Non-existent support for remarkable Dhawan

Dhawan was left without support despite his incredible effort. He accounted for 69.2 per cent of his side's total, the second-highest percentage of a team's runs in IPL history when batting first (after Brendon McCullum scored 158 not out in Kolkata Knight Riders' 223 versus Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008).

Opener Dhawan smashed 12 fours and cleared the ropes five times in his well-crafted 66-ball innings, becoming the leading run scorer in the embryonic IPL batting charts after taking his tally to 225.

Rinku Singh hit five successive sixes in the final over of a remarkable Indian Premier League game to lift Kolkata Knight Riders to victory over Gujarat Titans.

The heroics came after a stunning hat-trick from Rashid Khan gave Gujarat command as they attempted to defend 204-4.

Rashid's dismissals of Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur seemingly left KKR's innings in tatters, and they needed 29 from the last six balls.

Umesh Yadav hit a single off the first ball of the over, putting Rinku on strike and setting the stage for him to lift the Knight Riders to an incredible three-wicket win by bludgeoning Yash Dayal in a sensational display of batting that will live long in the memory.

A half-century from Sai Sudharsan (53) and Vijay Shankar's unbeaten 63 saw Gujarat set a testing target.

Venkatesh Iyer then played the lead role for much of the chase, with his 83 helping KKR to 154-3 in the 16th over. 

But he was caught at long on, off the bowling of Alzarri Joseph, and Rashid ripped through the middle order in a magnificent 17th over.

Rinku was the pillar of the middle order that remained, and he gave KKR a glimmer of hope with 10 runs from the final two balls of the penultimate over.

The target still looked likely to be beyond KKR, but Rinku snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in a spectacular finale, completing an astonishing turnaround by pummelling Dayal over long on.

Rashid hat-trick in vain

Gujarat's loss was their first in the opening three games of the season, but Rashid could hardly have done more to aid their cause.

He had Russell caught behind from a googly before Narine hit out to deep midwicket, with Rashid then returning to the googly to complete his hat-trick by trapping Thakur lbw.

Rinku to the rescue

Rinku was the hero for KKR, but he got a big assist from Dayal with some below-par death bowling.

His full toss-laden final over got the treatment it deserved from Rinku, who hammered maximums over long off, deep backward square leg, and his final two over long on as he finished off an historic rescue act.

Rinku's 30 runs is the most by any batter in the 20th over of an IPL game in a run chase, while his five sixes over the ropes saw him tie Ravindra Jadeja for the most in the final over of any IPL innings.

Ajinkya Rahane scored the fastest half-century of the 2023 Indian Premier League on his Chennai Super Kings in a seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians.

Mumbai were restricted to 157-8 after they were put in at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday, Ravindra Jadeja taking 3-20 with support from Mitchell Santner (2-28) and Tushar Deshpande (2-31).

That was not enough to give them a first win of the tournament, as Rahane struck 61 off only 21 balls and faced just 19 deliveries to reach his half-century on his home ground before CSK reached their target with 11 balls to spare.

The Indians were going along well at 61-1 at the end of the powerplay, but lost their way after Ishan Kishan (32) followed captain Rohit Sharma (21) back to the pavilion.

Santner had Suryakumar Yadav caught behind and Jadeja took a sharp catch off his own bowling to remove Cameron Green as Mumbai lost four wickets for only 12 runs.

Hrithik Shokeen added 18 in quick time after a brisk 33 from Tim David and Jason Behrendorff struck an early blow in the run chase by bowling Devon Conway for a duck.

Rahane then took centre stage, taking the Mumbai attack apart with great timing and placement to put CSK well on course for victory by the time he fell to Piyush Chawla.

Mumbai, who were without Jofra Archer, were unable to recover from Rahane's onslaught, with Ruturaj Gaikwad making an unbeaten 40 as the Super Kings made it two wins from three matches.

Rahane destructive on debut

CSK were missing Ben Stokes, reportedly due to a heel injury and the unwell Moeen Ali but Rahane proved he still has so much to offer on the big stage.

Snapped up by Chennai after being released by Kolkata Knight Riders, the 34-year-old looked like a man eager to prove a point as he struck three sixes and a further seven boundaries in a brilliant knock.

Jadeja spins the game in CSK's favour

India all-rounder Jadeja was excellent with ball in hand, turning the game in CSK's favour by seeing the back of Kishan, Green and Tilak Varma.

He bowled nine dot balls and was hit for just one boundary in an excellent display of spin bowling.

Jos Buttler scored 79 from 51 balls to lead Rajasthan Royals to a 57-run victory against Delhi Capitals on Saturday.

An opening partnership of 98 from Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal from just 8.3 overs gave the Royals a foundation to build from, eventually setting the Capitals a target of 200.

Three wickets each for Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal then reduced Delhi as they could only muster 142-9 from their 20 overs.

Buttler and Jaiswal set the tone before the latter was caught and bowled by Mukesh Kumar for 60 from just 31 deliveries.

Delhi gave themselves hope of causing a batting collapse as Kuldeep Yadav removed captain Sanju Samson for a duck, before Rovman Powell bowled Riyan Parag for seven to reduce the Royals to 126-3 as the run rate began to slow down.

Buttler continued to keep the scoreboard ticking along with Shimron Hetmyer (39 not out), though, before also being caught and bowled by Mukesh.

Boult dismissed Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey for ducks as the Capitals slipped to 0-2 inside the first over of their reply.

After Rilee Rossouw was out for 14, David Warner and Lalit Yadav started to finally allow Delhi to get a foothold in their innings before the latter was bowled by Boult for 38.

Warner started to quickly run out of partners before finally succumbing himself for 65 as the Capitals struggled to ever threaten the target to give the Royals their second win to go top of the Indian Premier League, while Delhi suffered their third loss from three outings.

Buttler storms the Capitals

It was a mature knock from the England white-ball captain, who hit 11 fours and one six, though he did have a lucky moment when he was dropped on 18 by Anrich Nortje.

He briefly sat atop the IPL's list for most runs in the early stage of this year's competition (152), only for Warner (158) to overtake him in Delhi's reply.

Warner landmark no consolation for Delhi

The Australian is the third batsman to score 6,000 runs in IPL history and the fifth to score 2,000 runs for the Capitals in the competition, and is only the second to score 2,000+ runs for two teams (also Sunrisers Hyderabad) after Shikhar Dhawan for the same two teams.

However, the Capitals have won just one IPL game from the last 14 times they have chased a target of 200 or more, which was a seven-wicket win when chasing Gujarat Lions' score of 208 in May 2017.

Lucknow Super Giants bounced back to winning ways in the Indian Premier League as they defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad in a five-wicket victory on Friday.

The hosts recovered from their 12-run loss to Chennai Super Kings on Monday with an excellent all-round performance at BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium.

Having lost the toss and been put into field, a ruthless bowling attack led by Krunal Pandya's superb 3-18 off four overs seriously restricted the visitors.

Despite solid knocks from Anmolpreet Singh (31) and Rahul Tripathi (34), the loss of captain Aiden Markram (0) and Harry Brook (3) saw the Sunrisers labour to 55-4 after nine overs.

The Super Giants continued to keep the overall runrate to a soft 6.05 per over, ultimately holding their opponents to a final total of 121-8, the lowest score of the IPL season so far.

A sharp start with the bat in response from openers Kyle Mayers (13) and KL Rahul (35) suggested Lucknow's subsequent chase would be something of a formality.

Wickets for Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-19) and Fazalhaq Farooqi (1-13) sparked hope of a top-order wobble though, with Deepak Hooda (7) caught and bowled by the former.

But backed for a 55-run third-wicket stand by Pandya (34), Rahul steered his side to the brink of victory, with Adil Rashid (2-23) and his late scare not enough to derail their score of 127-5.

Pandya turns screw early on

With Singh and Tripathi both offering strong resistance, it was imperative the Super Giants cut off the rest of their top order threat before they could get going.

The former's dismissal, immediately followed by Markram's duck in a devastating two-ball spell, saw Pandya get his side firmly on top in this game.

Rashid reinforces credentials

There has not been too much doubt over the England man's place in the national white-ball set-up ahead of this year's World Cup defence.

Nevertheless, his blistering late stint, where he claimed Rahul and Romario Shepherd in consecutive deliveries, will do him no harm as he pushes to cement his spot.

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.

New Zealand's ODI captain Kane Williamson is set to miss this year's ICC World Cup after scans confirmed he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) fielding in the Indian Premier League.

The decorated 32-year-old batsman underwent scans on Tuesday having sustained the injury to his right knee fielding in the Gujarat Titans' season opener against the Chennai Super Kings on Friday.

Williamson, who returned to New Zealand following the incident, will likely miss the World Cup in India in October and November given the significant rehabilitation timeframe for an ACL injury.

"I look forward to doing what I can to support [New Zealand coach] Gary [Stead] and the team over the next few months," Williamson said in a New Zealand Cricket statement.

"Naturally it's disappointing to get such an injury, but my focus now is on having the surgery and starting rehab.

"It's going to take some time, but I'll be doing everything I can to get back on the field as soon as possible."

Williamson averages 47.83 across 161 ODIs with 13 centuries and 42 half-centuries, with his absence at the World Cup to be a major blow for the Black Caps. Tom Latham is the leading candidate to take over as captain at the World Cup.

"You take Kane the player for a start, but then Kane the leader and the person he is within our group as well, it's a huge spanner in the works for us," Stead said.

"We haven't given up hope that he might be right but at this stage it does look unlikely. Our first thoughts are with Kane at the moment, it's a tough time for him, it's not an injury you expect…it hits you pretty hard."

New Zealand were beaten in the 2019 World Cup final by England in a dramatic super over on the boundary count back rule. Williamson was named Player of the Tournament in 2019, making 578 runs in 10 games.

Punjab Kings fended off a Rajasthan Royals fightback after a stunning spell from Nathan Ellis had teed up a five-run win that saw them start the 2023 IPL with back-to-back victories.

Both teams had enjoyed opening wins, and this match too could have gone either way despite the Kings appearing to be in complete control thanks to Ellis.

After Punjab captain Shikhar Dhawan did the heavy lifting with 86 not out to see his side finish on 197-4, Ellis (4-30) took a series of vital wickets to slow the Royals' response.

Luck was initially on the Australia bowler's side as an inside edge looped up off Jos Buttler's pad for a smart catch for 19.

Sanju Samson carried the scoring burden, making 42, before he too departed off the bowling of Ellis, who also accounted for Riyan Parag (20) from his next delivery, then bowled Devdutt Paddikal (21) later in the same over.

A deep Royals line-up still contained Shimron Hetmyer (36 off 18) and impact player Dhruv Jurel (32 not out off 15), and the pair combined for a quick 61.

But even with Ellis' allocation up, Hetmyer had himself run out in the final over as Sam Curran (0-44) just about kept the batting side at bay.

Chahal's slow progress

This was not a night IPL veteran Yuzvendra Chahal will reflect on particularly fondly, even if it saw him edge closer to the tournament's wickets record.

His figures of 1-50 were damaging – Punjab scoring easily despite some fine fielding, including from Buttler – but the wicket of Jitesh Sharma was his 171st in the IPL, moving ahead of Lasith Malinga and now trailing only Dwayne Bravo (183).

Electric Ellis excels

Both teams named unchanged XIs, meaning Ellis was preferred to 99-wicket Kagiso Rabada. The Australian had only five IPL wickets to his name prior to this match.

Ellis significantly added to that tally, however, his spell turning the tide and providing a reminder of the talent that saw him take a hat-trick on his T20I debut in 2021 – even if Curran's contribution was still required to get the job done.

Jason Roy has joined Kolkata Knight Riders for the remainder of the Indian Premier League season as an injury replacement for Shreyas Iyer.

The England opener has signed up on a deal worth approximately INR 2.8 crore (£275,000), up on his pre-season auction price of INR 1.5 crore (£147,000).

Roy's return to the IPL comes amid a minor player crisis for KKR, who have lost India's Iyer to a back injury, as well as Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.

Though English players are typically not allowed to sign after the start of March, those on ECB contracts are an exemption to the rule, allowing his move.

The Surrey batter last played in 2021, scoring 150 runs in five games for Sunrisers Hyderabad, and will hope to maintain his strong white-ball start to 2023.

With 245 runs in seven games for Quetta Gladiators during the Pakistan Super League, Roy also posted the tournament's highest individual tally, with 145 not out.

A member of the England team that won the 2019 Cricket World Cup, he was dropped from their 2022 T20 World Cup-winning squad.

Ahead of his side's 50-over defence in India later this year, the 32-year-old will be hopeful he can use his time with KKR to consolidate his spot in the squad.

Roy's return to the IPL may come too soon to feature in his new team's next match, which is against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday.

However, he could be included for their trip to face defending champions Gujarat Titans on Sunday, as KKR look to bounce back from an opening loss against Punjab Kings.

Sai Sudharsan's unbeaten 62 helped Gujarat Titans continue their winning start in the IPL with a six-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals.

Chasing 163, defending champions Gujarat lost three wickets before the end of the powerplay, including that of captain Hardik Pandya for just five.

But Sudharsan's half-century, aided by a big-hitting cameo from David Miller (31 off 16), set up an ultimately straightforward win.

The 21-year-old survived an eighth-over review for caught behind and put on 53 for the fourth wicket with Vijay Shankar (29).

Miller then joined Sudharsan in the middle and ensured the Titans raced to their target with 11 balls to spare – the Capitals' 162-8 never having really looked like being enough.

David Warner had opened with 37 but required 32 balls, with that plodding run rate keeping the Titans firmly in the match.

Nortje enjoys opener rewards

In a brief spell in which the Capitals looked capable of causing their opponents some problems, Anrich Nortje dismissed openers Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill.

Since the start of the 2022 tournament, Nortje has taken the wicket of six openers, the second-most among Capitals bowlers.

Miller turns on the style

The Titans have an impressive record chasing targets of 150 or more, doing so a leading seven times in the past two years.

They were able to do so this time in large part due to Miller's contribution, which saw two fours and two sixes in a 28-minute dash to the finish.

Moeen Ali's four-wicket haul held off the charge of the Lucknow Super Giants as the Chennai Super Kings secured a 12-run Indian Premier League victory on Monday.

KL Rahul, Kyle Mayers, Krunal Pandya and Marcus Stoinis were all dispatched by Moeen (4-26), who dismissed all but one of the Super Giants' first five batsmen.

Ruturaj Gaikwad (57) and Devon Conway (47) opened for the Super Kings in a strong start with a 110-run stand, before the pair were eventually sent packing by Ravi Bishnoi (3-28) and Mark Wood (3-49).

The Super Kings then lost momentum, with their next seven batters accumulating just 117 additional runs to set the Super Giants a target of 217.

Rahul (20) and Mayers (53) gave the Super Giants' chase a promising start, but Deepak Hooda (2) and Pandya (9) failed to reach double figures as the visitors began to wane.

Krishnappa Gowtham (17) and Ayush Badoni (23) got the Super Giants close with 18 runs on a single Deepak Chahar (0-55) over.

But superb bowling from Tushar Deshpande (2-45) limited Lucknow to just seven runs in the 18th over, then just about defending a lead of 28 on the last to seal a Super Kings victory.

Ali in his groove

A fine bowling display from Moeen saw him register his best IPL bowling figures in the competition's victory.

He became just the fifth spinner to take a four-wicket haul at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in the IPL.

Dhoni's landmark

Hitting two sixes off three balls, MS Dhoni took his overall run tally in the IPL to 5,004, becoming just the seventh player overall and fifth Indian to score over 5,000 runs in the competition's history.

A superb opening stand from Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis ensured Royal Challengers Bangalore cruised to an eight-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League opener.

Having fallen just short of the IPL final last year, RCB got their 2023 campaign off to a terrific start, dominating their opponents on both sides of the ball at The Mangalam Chinnaswamy Stadium.

RCB made a fast start with the ball, with Harshal Patel well-placed to claim an outside edge from Ishan Kishan (10) before Reece Topley bowled Cameron Green (5), though a bizarre collision between Dinesh Karthik and Mohammed Siraj saw the latter inexplicably drop Rohit Sharma.

Rohit was less fortunate when he handed Karthik a catch for just one run three balls later, though his exit allowed Tilak Varma to step up with a quickfire 84 off 46 balls, carrying Mumbai to 171-7.

That outstanding effort proved to be in vain, however, with Du Plessis (73) and Kohli (82 not out) putting on a strong opening stand of 148, both bringing up half-centuries by the end of the 12th over.

While skipper Du Plessis walked with five overs remaining, lofting through to Tim David for a simple catch, Mumbai never looked likely to break the momentum of RCB, who recorded a statement win.

Varma wastes no time

In dragging Mumbai to a respectable tally with his knock of 84, Varma averaged a boundary every 3.5 deliveries.

Only Jos Buttler – who struck a boundary every 2.2 balls in the Rajasthan Royals' win over Sunrisers Hyderabad – has posted a better such rate in the early stages of the IPL this season, with Varma hitting nine fours and four sixes from the 46 balls he faced.

Unfortunately for the 20-year-old, RCB's top-order batsmen were in similar form as Mumbai failed to build any momentum with the ball.

Fifty up for Kohli

RCB never looked likely to fall short in their chase of 172, with Kohli taking centre-stage to bring up a personal IPL landmark.  

With his knock of 82 runs from 49 balls, Kohli recorded his 50th score of 50 runs or more in the IPL. Only David Warner (60) has more half-centuries in the competition's history.

Early dominance in both innings from Rajasthan Royals saw them cruise to a comfortable 72-run triumph over Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday to open their IPL campaign with a win.

Runners-up last season, Rajasthan had strong performances from Jos Buttler with the bat and Trent Boult with the ball to thank as they overwhelmed their opponents.

Hyderabad won the toss and put the Royals in to bat first, a decision that proved to be a poor one as openers Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal smashed a team record of 85 runs in the powerplay, with the former reaching his half-century off just 20 balls before he was cleaned up by Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Though the Royals' run rate slowed following Buttler's dismissal for 54, Jaiswal (54) and captain Sanju Samson (55) both reached half-centuries while Shimron Hetmyer added 22 in an important cameo as Rajasthan set Hyderabad a target of 204.

The Sunrisers' chase faltered almost immediately, Boult removing Abhishek Sharma and Rahul Tripathi in the opening over without a run on the board before danger man Harry Brook saw his first IPL innings ended with just 13 from 21 deliveries when he was bowled by Yuzvendra Chahal.

Wickets continued to tumble as Chahal impressed, taking 4-17 to eradicate any chances of a miraculous Hyderabad chase and see his team to an emphatic victory.

Royals' top order set unassailable target

Despite taking just 43 runs off the final five overs, Rajasthan's top order had already put them in good stead, recording the fifth most powerplay runs in IPL history.

Their top three batsmen all reached 50 as Buttler and Jaiswal piled on the runs early before a captain's innings from Samson helped the Royals set a target that Hyderabad never looked like knocking off.

Boult blitz stamps out Hyderabad's hopes

Any chance of a successful Sunrisers' run chase was essentially stamped out within the first over as a double-wicket maiden from Boult had them staring down the barrel of defeat.

Rajasthan opted to use Boult's pace early and often, the New Zealander bowling three of the first five overs, conceding just eight runs in that spell before eventually finishing with figures of 2-21.

Kyle Mayers and Mark Wood got their Indian Premier League campaigns off to brilliant starts as Lucknow Super Giants beat Delhi Capitals by 50 runs.

The Super Giants boasted the best performers with both bat and ball, as Mayers' 73 from 38 deliveries and Wood's 5-14 led them to a comfortable win on Saturday.

Lucknow's hopes were hit when key man and captain KL Rahul dismissed for 19 in the fourth over, and his replacement Mayers was hugely fortunate not to be sent packing on 14 when he was dropped by Khaleel Ahmed.

Mayers took advantage of that reprieve, plundering 59 more runs before finally succumbing to a peach of a delivery from Axar Patel that clipped the top of off stump.

Though that wicket slowed Lucknow's progress, they smashed 62 off the final four overs.

Delhi's chase got off to a fantastic start, racing to 33 for no loss off the first three overs, but a magnificent spell from Wood saw him dismiss Prithvi Shaw, Mitchell Marsh and Sarfaraz Khan to halt the Capitals' momentum.

Avesh Khan landed the hammer blow when he removed David Warner (56) with the Capital's captain caught by Krishnappa Gowtham.

Warner's men would tack on just 30 more runs, falling 50 short of the winning total as Wood sealed his five-for with the penultimate ball of the innings.

Mayers punishes Khaleel drop

The game could have been very different had Khaleel held on after Mayers tried to slog a slower ball from Chetan Sakariya.

Instead, the ball agonisingly hit the turf and Mayers went on to register two fours and seven maximums on his IPL debut, reaching his half-century after just 28 balls to truly exploit Khaleel's mistake.

Lightning quick pace from Wood halts Capitals' chase

A sublime couple of overs from Wood completely altered the momentum in Delhi's chase and put his team back in the ascendancy.

Wood's first game for Lucknow saw him earn player of the match honours.

Punjab Kings held on to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by seven runs via the DLS method in the Indian Premier League after Andre Russell almost led an improbable comeback.

After being put in to bat by KKR in the second match of the new campaign, hosts Punjab racked up 191-5, as an 86-run second-wicket partnership between Bhanuka Rajapaksa (50) and captain Shikhar Dhawan (40) set them up.

Rajapaksa reached his half century from just 30 balls, with Jitesh Sharma (21 off 11) and Sam Curran (26 off 17) helping to keep up the momentum after the Sri Lanka batter's dismissal.

Wickets fell regularly for KKR in their reply, with Arshdeep Singh (3-19) removing Mandeep Singh and Anukul Roy in his first over, before later returning to claim the key scalp of Venkatesh Iyer (34).

The chase looked doomed at 80-5, but a typically big-hitting display from Russell (35 from 19) got them back in with a chance before Curran removed the danger man with a short ball that was skied to Sikandar Raza.

After Sunil Narine smashed a six, KKR were still in with an outside chance at 146-7 needing 46 runs from the last 24 balls, but rain was in the air at that point and the umpires called the players off with Punjab narrowly ahead via DLS and no resumption of play proved possible.
 

Kings hope to end play-off drought

With Curran, the England all-rounder who this season became the most expensive player in the IPL's 16-year history, in their ranks and Arshdeep looking impressive, Punjab look primed for a strong campaign.

Kagiso Rabada and Liam Livingstone are among the stars still to come into the team, with the Kings desperate to end an eight-year run without reaching the play-offs. 

So far, so good after they beat KKR for only the third time from their last nine IPL attempts despite the best efforts of Russell.

Narine negated

Narine has a superb IPL track record, having taken 152 wickets for KKR. He recorded a dot ball rate of 42.3 per cent last season, the best of any spinner in the IPL (min. 25 overs).

But the Kings played him well. Rajapaksa made his team's intentions clear by hitting 14 runs – including a six – from Narine's opening over and the spinner went on to leak 36 runs without claiming a wicket from his first three.

Narine did respond with the late wicket of Raza (16) but the batting team would have gladly settled for his final figures of 1-40 had they been offered.