Kolkata Knight Riders won their first-ever Super Over match in the Indian Premier League History and established their position in the top four of the points table. The introduction of Lockie Ferguson in this match proved vital for them as the Kiwi fast bowler got three Sunrisers Hyderabad wickets in the regular four overs and then got two more to make the Super Over one-sided for KKR.
KKR Batting still lacking steam
Once again, the batting looked the weaker suit in the KKR line-up. This time they had a good start as Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi added 48 runs in the powerplay. But Tripathi’s enterprising innings was over in the last ball of the powerplay and then Shubman Gill again failed to move the scoreboard even after being set.
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He was continuously troubled by Vijay Shankar who bowled an excellent spell and contained Gill. Finally, Gill tried to hit Rashid khan and was caught brilliantly by Priyam Garg. Nitish Rana again got a start but did not convert and Andre Russell again was a failure and at 105/4 in the 15th over it all depended on Captain Eoin Morgan and Dinesh Karthik. The duo batted well to add 58 runs in the last five overs and ensured the bowlers had something to defend.
Ferguson Show
It was a mystery why KKR did not try Ferguson yet and even after having him in the squad, Morgan brought him in the 7th over with SRH opening pair of Kane Williamson and Jonny Bairstow batting beautifully. Ferguson made an immediate impact as he got his national captain Williamson dismissed with his first delivery of IPL 2020.
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In his next over he dismissed Priyam Garg and helped KKR to make a comeback in the match. He returned in the 12th over and dismissed Manish Pandey by beating him with pace. Morgan trusted him with the 18th over and he again delivered a brilliant over to concede just seven runs. He finished with 3/15 but his day was not over as after lots of drama a half-fit Russell defended 18 runs in the last over to take the match to the third Super Over of the season.
Super Over Drama
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Ferguson gave the Knights a dream start in the Super Over by dismissing David Warner in the first delivery and by the third ball the SRH inning was over as Ferguson also bowled Abdul Samad after conceding just two runs in the second delivery. With a target of three runs to achieve Morgan and Karthik came out to bat to face Rashid. And it took them four deliveries including two dots to get the winning run with two leg byes. With this win, KKR reached 10 points and created an important four points gap with the bottom half of the table.