On Friday, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had a chance to consolidate their second position in the IPL 2024 points table as they reclaimed the spot following Sunrisers Hyderabad’s loss to Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday. This could bring them one step closer to making the playoffs again. But Punjab Kings confounded the home side, who pulled off a heist to set a T20 world record at the Eden Gardens. Inspired by a strong performance from Jonny Bairstow, who scored the second IPL century of his career, PBKS chased down 262 with eight wickets in hand and eight balls to spare.
While KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir watched the proceedings more or less helplessly as Punjab Kings rained sixes on a humid day in Kolkata, he was a bit more active during the first innings when Sunil Narine (71 off 32 balls) and Phil Salt (75 runs on 37 balls). balls) decimated the PBKS bowling attack.
However, there was an incident in which Gambhir was seen losing his cool during KKR’s batting innings. This happened after the last ball of the 14th over. Rahul Chahar bowled a short ball outside off, which Andre Russell turned back to cut through cover, but Ashutosh Sharma made a brilliant stop inside the circle. He then bowled the ball quickly towards wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma, but the throw went wide as Russell stole a run from the overthrow. But on-field umpire Anil Chaudhary immediately refused to take a single, explaining that he had already ruled it out when Ashutosh stopped the ball.
Although there was no reaction from Russell when KKR did not give a single, Gambhir was angry and went to the fourth umpire, who was standing near the KKR dugout, and was seen having a heated argument with him. This continued for quite some time, but Gambhir was still unhappy and went back.
In the end, singles might have made little difference against PBKS, whose batsmen were in blitzkrieg mode. Additionally, apart from Bairstow’s unbeaten 108, diminutive Prabhsimran Singh scored 54 off just 20 balls in the powerplay, before Riley Rossouw played a useful cameo with 26 off 16 balls. The in-form Shashank then hit eight sixes, falling just short of one. Bairstow’s nine and two fours helped PBKS register their first win in five matches in the ongoing IPL 2024.