KOLKATA, India (AP) — Mukul Choudhary hit seven sixes in the death overs to power Lucknow Super Giants to a three-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Choudhary, playing his first IPL season, dashed Kolkata hopes for its first win in the tournament with an unbeaten 54 off 27 balls as Lucknow reached 182-7 off the final ball.
Unbeaten cameos from Rovman Powell (39) and Cameron Green (32) lifted Kolkata to 181-4 after captain Ajinkya Rahana lost the toss and was put in to bat.
Lucknow has two wins from three games while Kolkata is lurching at No. 9 in the standings with just one point from its last rained-out game.
The total seemed to be enough for Kolkata as Lucknow had slumped to 128-7 in 16 overs.
But Choudhary took charge with its extraordinary power-hitting against pacers including Green, who bowled for the first time this season and finished with 1-28 from his two overs.
Green’s 16-run penultimate over brought down the target to 14 off Vaibhav Arora’s final over, but Choudhary smacked two sixes against the fast bowler as he leveled the scores with his seventh six of the innings over extra cover.
Choudhary couldn’t connect the final ball, but Avesh Khan scampered for the winning run as wicketkeeper Angkrish Raghuvanshi missed the stumps at the striker’s end.
Impact substitute Ayush Badoni (54) also score a half-century, but his dismissal just before the death overs raised Kolkata hopes with Choudhary smacking sixes at will.
Aiden Markram (22) and Mitchell Marsh (15) provided Lucknow a sound start of 41 in four overs before Kolkata’s impact substitute Arora dismissed both.
Markram spooned Arora’s short ball to mid-wicket and Marsh was caught behind when he got a faint edge to a leg-side delivery as the Australian batter threw his head back in disappointment.
Kolkata’s million-dollar buy Green struck off his second ball when captain Rishabh Pant (10) top-edged a short ball to short fine leg as Lucknow slipped to 73-3 in the 9th over.
Lucknow’s top-order struggle against short balls continued when Nicholas Pooran fell to Kartik Tyagi for a struggling 13 off 15 balls that featured only one six.
Earlier, Prince Yadav continued to impress with his bowling in the power play when removed Finn Allen (9) in the second over.
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