It seemed like it was going to be a cakewalk for the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede in Mumbai on Friday evening. Chasing 138 for victory, with a batting line-up of KKR's class, it was more or less a given. But it was far from it.
Put in to bat by KKR Skipper Shreyas Iyer, Punjab Kings had failed to capitalise on the momentum provided by Bhanuka Rajapaksa who hammered 31 off 9 balls coming in at the fall of Captain Mayank Agarwal's wicket.
Liam Livingstone then smashed a quick 19 off 16 and Punjab were sitting nicely at 79 for 4 in 9 overs. They went spiralling out of control thereafter as their middle order crumbled, but thanks to Kagiso Rabada (25 off 16), who was playing his first game for the franchise, Punjab posted a semblance of a challenging total on the board.
KKR had an equally bad start, losing opener Ajinkya Rahane -- a reflection of his old, classy self -- for 12 before Venkatesh Iyer was caught at point by Arshdeep Singh.
Two overs later, Shreyas was sent back for 25 and Nitish Rana was LBW for a duck, leggie Rahul Chahar scalping two in an over.
At 51 for 4 after 7 overs, things were looking tough for KKR as Punjab suddenly had their hands on the wheel and it looked like they were driving away with it.
But underestimating West Indian players should be done at one's peril and that is exactly what Andre Russell showed us on the night.
He came out with a plan and that plan was to use his brute force to smash bowlers all around the park to take his team home to victory.
Just when it seemed that KKR's game had slowed down -- they scored just five runs from overs 7 to 9; Chahar the tormentor-in-chief, -- Russell came to the party.
He first took down Harpreet Brar for 17 runs in the over, smashing the leggie for two massive sixes.
An over later, Russell sent fellow Jamaican Odean Smith to the cleaners. He smoked Smith all over the park and along with Sam Billings took 30 runs in the over -- 4 maximums and one boundary coming off it.
That over dramatically brought down the asking run rate, but Russell was not done yet as he sent Arshdeep Singh into space and once nearly took the bowler's head off when he smashed the ball straight down the ground to get to his 50; 13 runs coming in the over. With 10 runs needed, Russell hits the winning runs with 2 sixes.
Russell just used his power to go after the bowling and not once did he finch while clobbering the bowlers around. The Punjab bowlers just could not find a way back in, outdone by the burly batter who posted a 90-run stand (off just 47 balls!) with Billings for KKR to sail through.
