IPL 2024: Lucknow Super Giants vs Kolkata Knight Riders, 54th Match – Who Said What?

Before the IPL 2024 season, the Lucknow Super Giants defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders without a loss.

The current champions twice defeated Lucknow in the 17th tournament, but under Gautam Gambhir, they came off as ruthless. Gambhir’s decisions have greatly benefited KKR this season, as seen in their resounding victory over Lucknow at Ekana Stadium, even though the players should receive all the credit for obvious reasons.

Once again, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine, batting first, gave the visitors a flawless start. They established a 61-run collaboration that determined the KKR team’s strategy. Following his trip back to the pavilion with a score of 32 runs from 14 deliveries, Narine took over and amassed 81 runs from 39 deliveries.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi provided him with excellent support, and at the end of the innings, Ramandeep Singh produced a breathtaking cameo of 22 runs off of only eight balls, aiding KKR in scoring a whopping 235 runs.

The batters from Lucknow never appeared at ease during the chase. In addition to keeping them in check, the KKR bowlers excelled in the field that evening. While Varun Chakravarthy and Salt were also impressive, it was Ramandeep who may have made the catch of the tournament to dismiss Arshin Kulkarni. As KKR triumphed by 98 runs, Chakravarthy took three wickets, as did the returning Harshit Rana. Andre Russell took two wickets.

1. Sunil Narine is crazy

In IPL 2024, Sunil Narine has been nothing short of amazing. Currently ranked third on the Orange Cap leaderboard, he has amassed 461 runs overall, including 81 smash hits against LSG. In addition, he has been quite economical when picking wickets for amusement. As the season’s MVP, he presently leads the field, and if Narine maintains his current level of play, KKR will have a chance to win the championship once more.

2. Ramandeep Singh having a noteworthy influence

In the few cameos he has had for KKR, Ramandeep Singh has already made some excellent cameos. He has been a machine on the pitch, and the management will be overjoyed with the all-around player’s performance. Despite having previously played for MI, the all-rounder has performed to his full capacity this time around.

3. There is no stopping Varun Chakravarthy

Once again, Varun Chakravarthy was the standout player for KKR when it came to the ball. Varun took three wickets and helped the KKR win on a track that did not benefit spinners as much.

Also read: IPL 2024: Lucknow Super Giants 2nd innings highlights against KKR in Match 54

Losing skipper KL Rahul said:

It was a lot of runs to be scored in the second innings. When you are chasing a big total, you are trying to go too hard and you end up losing wickets. Just a poor performance overall. We didn’t (hit our lengths on a consistent basis), just been a poor performance overall with bat, ball and in the field. Sunil Narine and Phil Salt, in the powerplay, we’ve seen how they bat and they do put a lot of pressure on the opposition. Our young bowlers couldn’t handle that kind of pressure and he hit some really good shots. That’s how IPL is, you come up against really good players and that’s when your character is tested.

We weren’t up to the mark. The wicket was really good, felt like a pretty true wicket, there was a bit of bounce if you bowled hard lengths and back of a lengths, but nothing out of the ordinary and it didn’t seem like a pitch that was really bad. 235 was probably 20 or 30 runs above par and our batting performance was really poor. When you’re chasing such a big score, you’re under pressure, it’s always hard.

We prepare well in advance and talk about the opposition batters, we know our conditions here and we do spend a little bit of time talking to the bowlers and talking to the batters trying to see what kind of plans we need to come up with.

Once we come here, it’s about execution and we went wrong in that part. Bowlers tried their best but the young group really … the sooner you learn, the better it for the team. We’ve made a couple of mistakes when we’ve come up against batters like Sunil and anyone that’s powerful. That type of intimidation puts pressure on our bowlers. That’ll be the chat once we get back to the dressing room – move on from this game, see where we went wrong and try and get better.

This is our last home game for us, so we are on the road for the next three games. It’s pretty clear for us, if you want to get to the top four, you got to win all the games. That will give us a little bit of freedom to go out there and be a little bit more fearless, little bit brave to take on the game

Winning skipper Shreyas Iyer said:

The last 6 matches in the dressing room there has been havoc, teammates are coming in and asking skip what’s happening, we are losing tosses, we are winning games that matters. We had a great start in the powerplay. A lefty-righty combination makes thing difficult for the opposition. It’s all about the freedom, to go out and express themselves.

We want to go out and be positive whatever the situation is, sometimes it doesn’t work out but sometimes it does. They have been splending for us, the way they are playing their shots is pure bliss. They are setting us up and giving is momentum and no matter what the situation is, we are playing with a positive mindset.

POTM Sunil Narine said:

The most important thing is starting well and it’s good to have the backing of the support staff. I think you have to pick your strengths and pick your spots, sometimes it works out. It’s going very well, Varun is picking up wickets, it’s making my job easier to keep things tight. He is a hard worker. The boys are anxious and eager to play, so no matter what the situation is they are contributing for us.