It was a run feast at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday, April 29.
Andre Russell, KKR's biggest impact player, felt he was walking in too low down the order and publicly expressed his desire to bat higher up.
The KKR management paid heed and sent in the 30 year old at No 3 against the Mumbai Indians.
The stage was set for Russell to play fearlessly as KKR were handed a brilliant start by Openers Shubman Gill and Chris Lynn. Gill and Lynn added 96 runs together in just 9.3 overs.
When Russell walked in, he took his time to understand the conditions and the first 10 balls did not produce any powerful hits.
In the 13th over, he slammed two consecutive sixes off leg-spinner Rahul Chahar and that was the beginning of yet another special innings.
Soon, Russell went into 'smash-everything-out-of-the-park' mode.
The Jamaican was on 30 at the end of 17 overs and from thereon amassed 50 runs in the last 3 overs.
Russell first hit Hardik for 3 sixes. He was determined to finish on a high and was not going to back down even if it was Lasith Malinga bowling.
He hammered 6 fours and 8 sixes including one off the last ball after denying Captain Dinesh Karthik a couple of singles in the last over.
KKR amassed 75 runs from the last 5 overs and scored 135 in the final 10 as the hosts posted the season's highest score.
As if Andre wasn't happy enough with his fireworks with the bat, he had Evin Lewis caught by Karthik with his first ball. In his second over, Russell struck again and removed Suryakumar Yadav.
Mumbai Indians needed 59 runs off the last 3 overs and Hardik was batting on 81 not out off 30 balls.
Hardik hit Harry Gurney for a 6 and 4 to move into the 90s, andf one could sense panic in the KKR camp.
In the same over, Hardik (91 off 34 balls) skied a Gurney delivery and it was that man again, Russell, who took the catch to send the Eden Gardens crowd into celebration mode.
