Match Details
Chasing a mammoth total of 213, Jason Roy propelled the Knight Riders to a blistering start. The English opener exploited the field restrictions and batted with an aggressive approach. Unmukt Chand played the second fiddle to him and ensured the runs keep flowing at a brisk rate. Roy and Chand stitched a quick 55-run opening partnership before Haris Rauf outwitted the right-hander Roy with a slower delivery. Nonetheless, Roy’s belligerent innings of 45(21) set the tempo of the innings. San Francisco were able to stem the flow of runs following the departure of Roy.
The right-handed Chand succumbed to pressure and threw away his wicket at 20(17). Nitish Kumar 31(23) pushed the pedal again but departed in the acceleration process. The Knight Riders could never really recover from the early blows and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Shadab Khan bowled superbly in the middle overs and bagged two massive wickets of Rilee Rossouw 8(8) and Jaskaran Malhotra 7(8) to push the Knight Riders on the backfoot. They were suddenly reeling on 116/5 and the onus was upon the Caribbean duo of Andre Russell and Sunil Narine to resurrect the innings.
Andre Russell broke free in the 17th over and swatted Liam Plunkett for 21 runs. Sunil Narine also played the supporting role to him and dragged the game to the last over. Both Russell 42*(26) and Narine 28*(17) showcased their pyrotechnic abilities and added 75 runs for the 6th wicket but they were always behind the asking rate. Shadab was the pick of the bowlers for the Unicorns and finished his stint with the figures of 2/26.