KKR vs LSG Highlights, IPL 2023: Rinku Singh’s fighting fifty in vain as Lucknow escape with 1 run win over Kolkata

Time for the 19th and Rinku will not go dow without a fight. Hits double boundaries from Naveen's first 2 balls. There's nothing to lose for Rinku as he goes after the 3rd ball and deposits it over the ropes for a 6!! 2 more as Rinku gets back on strike with a dive!! Brilliant running. And he has pulled the 5th ball for a 6!!! 20 from this over. KKR 156/7 after 19 overs

And is that another gone? Yes, looks like it. Suicidal run and Sunil Narine could not make his ground. His below par IPL with the bat ends tonight with a run out. KKR 136/7 after 18 overs

Tushar Bhaduri: When was the last time Andre Russell won KKR a game, especially with the bat? He has been a shadow of the beast he was in his pomp. Frequent injuries have restricted the number of overs he can bowl, and his batting is now largely restricted to hacks across the line, more in hope than conviction. He doesn't seem to have much clue against leg-spinner, as Ravi Bishnoi proved with a googly that flattened the off-stump, and can be found lacking against high-quality pace as well. This season has shown that KKR persisted with their erstwhile match-winner for at least a season too long. But they kept their faith in him for the entire season when even someone like David Wiese could have probably done a better job.

Yash Thakur to bowl the 18th and huge shout for LBW. On field umpire says no. Lucknow will review. No bat involved. Pitching outside leg. The review is lost. Rinku pulls for a six next ball!!! Gets a single next and Shardul on strike. Shardul goes for the longer part of the ground and he has played it straight down the throat of Mankad. Thakur takes Thakur.. KKR 134/6 after 17.4 overs

4 overs left and KKR need 56. Naveen to bowl the 17th over. Shardul tries to go for it, gets the bottom edge. No run. Gets the outer edge in the next ball and falls just short of the fielder. Rinku flicks and gets a single. Kolkata getting pegged back. Naveen, meanwhile, getting treated by the physio. And another dot. Kolkata can't seem to hit him. KKR 126/5 after 17 overs 

KKR need 63 from 30 ball, needing over 12 from an over. Bishnoi starts with a single. Pressure mounting. Goes for the heave ho off the second ball and gets hit on the ribs. The 3rd ball is punished for a straight six and the crowd has found their voice. And he's gone the next ball. Misses the line and gets cleaned up. KKR 120/5 after 15.4 overs

Naveen will bowl the 15th and after 1 from the first 2 balls, Russell swings and misses the 3rd. The boundaries have dried up for KKR and the chase has come to a screeching halt. Rinku ends the over with a 4. KKR 114/4 after 15 overs 

Yash Thakur has been brought in to see off the 14th over and Rinku pulls for a single. Another overthrow and Kolkata takes 2. What a great effort by Badoni to save a boundary. That's another wicket down as Gurbaz goes for the big hit, Bishnoi under it, juggles it and takes the catch. KKR 108/4 after 13.4 overs

Bishnoi will bowl his third and LSG's 13th and rinku has hit his 2nd delivery as staright as an arrow for a four!!! 100 up for the Knights. Overthrow enables KKR to get 2. KKR 103/3 after 13 overs

Gowtham in to bowl the last over of his spell and Rinku starts this one with 2. Takes a single next to put Gurbaz on strike. Wide ball and a singlre off the extra delivery. KKR 94/3 after 12 overs

Ravi Bishnoi will bowl the 11th and Gurbaz brings Rinku on strike with a single. Rinku returns the favour with a single of his own. KKR need to get a move on now or their fine start will be for nothing. 5 singles from 5 balls thus far. KKR 88/3 after 11 overs

Krunal Pandya in to bowl the 10th over and after c2 dots, Gurbaz finally takes a single. The pressure is mounting. Roy tries to take the initiative with a sweep but gets hit on the pad to get a leg bye. And bowled. The dangerous Roy is gone!! Skips on and does it to Roy. he is fuming. KKR 82/3 after 10 overs

Bishnoi will bowl the 9th and Rana swings and misses. Gets a bat to the second delivery but no run from this one as well. And he's gone. Could not judge the ball, gets an edge and it's straight to Krunal. KKR 78/2 after 8.3 overs

Gowtham back to bowl the 8th over and Rana with a single. Roy slaps the second ball to deep square leg to mine 2 more runs. Sharp turn off the 4th ball just misses Rana's outside edge. Good over. Roy ends the over with a 4. KKR 78/1 after 8 overs

Krunal in to bowl the 7th and yields just 1 from the first 2 deliveries. 2 more from the next two as Lucknow look to tighten the screws. Rana alleviates pressure with a nice and fine shot for a four!! KKR 69/1 after 7 overs

Gowtham to bowl the last over of the powerplay and just a single off the first 2 balls. Roy tries to go for the big hits but there's a fielder situated everywhere. And Iyer is gone. Chips straight to Bishnoi who makes no mistake. KKR 61/1 after 5.5 overs

Krunal Pandya to bowl the 5th and Roy reverse sweeps his first delivery for four. Follows that up with another stroke through the gap betwwen backward point and cover for four more. The 3rd one is lucky but it also maraudes a four over 3rd man.. KKR 59/0 after 5 overs

Gowtham to bowl the 4th and Iyer has slog swept his second ball to get 4. Misses the ball and looks like he has got back spasms. The physios are on the pitch to check on him. This will a blow for KKR if he can't continue. He can and Iyer takes 2 off the next ball. Wide next and Gowtham needs to bowl this one again!! And it's hit flat and falls just short of the fielder. CLose shave for Roy. KKR 45/0 after 4 overs

Krunal Pandya brings himself to bowl the 3rd and Roy has hit him for a four to start. Perfect stroke to split the two fielders inside the circle. Takes a single next to put iyer on strike. Iyer pulls and it's one bounce to the fielder. Swing and a miss to end the over. KKR 36/0 after 3 overs

Naveen to bowl the second and Roy smashes the second ball through the midwicket region for a four!! Comes down the ground next and hits a huge straight six!!! And another!!! They to chase this down in 8.5 overs to go over RCB on the table and they are going for it. Hits another one striaght but Naveen gets a hand to it and looks to have hurt himself. Single to end the over. KKR 30/0 after 2 overs

Mohsin starts with a dot as Roy swings and misses before taking a singke off the second delivery.  And Iyer starts with a four!! And the 5th ball gets the same treatment but it's a six!! Ends the over with another 4. Kolkata on the front foot. KKR 15/0 after 1 over

Welcome back to the chase as KKR have started with Jason Roy and Venkatesh Iyer on top. Mohsin Khan to open the attack. 

Russell brought in to bowl the last over and Naveen with a single to bring Gowtham on strike who takes another single. Gowtham finally gets a hold of the 5th ball and gets a 6!!! Much-needed. The final ball of the innings yields a four. LSG finish at 176/8 after 20 overs 

Shardul strikes again in the same over as Bishnoi tries to go for a slog and the delivery has just kissed the top of the bails and sends them tumbling. LSG 162/8 after 18.5 overs

Shardul to bowl the 19th and Pooran has gone ballistic as he hits back to back sixes to start this one. 50 up for him as well. He goes for it again and this time gets Venkatesh Iyer. LSG 159/7 after 18.3 overs

Narine to bowl the 18th and his last over. Pooran sweeps for a single to get off strike. The next ball to Badoni spins far away from the batter for a wide. Gets a boundary from the 4th ball. Goes agai and clears Iyer in the deep for a 6!! Momentum shift for Badoni. He's tried to hit it again but this time holes out to Shardul in the deep. LSG 147/6 after 18 overs

Vaibhav Arora will bowl the 17th and yields two runs to bring up the 50-run stand between these two batters. Bowls a wide next. Pooran tries a switch hit and misses. Short ball and it's given a wide. KKR will review this one. Looks very close but it's still a wide. A review is lost. Pooran slices the next ball for four. Another wide. It's turning out to be a pretty lengthy over. Ends with a single. LSG 133/5 after 17 overs

Varun Chakravarthy to end his spell now and starts with 2 dots. A single now and Pooran is on strike. Sweeps but gets a fielder whose direct throw hits the stumps. The batter is way in though. Not out. Much, much better from Varun. LSG 122/5 after 16 overs

Suyash starts the 15th over with a googly and Pooran welcomes him with a huge six. A quick single from the 3rd ball and if Gurbaz had hit the stumps, Badoni would be walking back. Pooran finds the gap again and ends the over with a boundary. LSG 119/5 after 15 overs

Tushar Bhaduri: What differentiates responsible from irresponsible batting when it comes to T20 batting? LSG had lost three wickets, including the crucial one of Stoinis, before Krunal Pandya and Quinton de Kock perished playing the slog-sweep to Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy respectively. Now with half their sie gone, Lucknow were staring down the barrel in a match that could decide whether they progressed to the playoffs. Conventional and conservative wisdom would suggest that both batsmen were a bit reckless in their shot selection, or at least their execution. But incoming batsman Nicholas Pooran doesn't seem to have a defensive bone in his body. His first three balls went for 4, 4 and 6 – the last one a one-handed straight hit off Chakravarthy. The West Indian followed it up with another maximum off the bowler's next over. If any of those shots had gone awry, there would have been many a raised eyebrows about the 'needlessness' of the shot. But it's much easier to be wise after an event.

Narine will bowl the 14th and just 3 runs from the first 4 deliveries. What a spell Narine is bowling at the moment. Badoni ends the over with a well placed four. LSG 107/5 after 14 overs

Varun in to bowl the 13th and Pooran has hit it high and over the ropes for a 6!! That had gone into orbit. Tries to go again but does not get the full bat to it. Settles for a single. Good comeback by the bowler. Just 3 more added to the 6. LSG 100/5 after 13 overs

Narine will bowl the 12th and there's the Impact player for KKR as the 3rd spinner Suyash comes in. 1 run off Narine's 1st 2 balls. 1 more from the next 3 deliveries. Tight over. How will he end it? With a single. LSG 91/5 after 12 overs

Nicholas Pooran in next and he has started like a house on fire!! 2 fours and a six already off Varun. Kolkata need to be very careful, they do not need this man to settle. LSG 88/5 after 11 overs

Varun will bowl the 11th and he snaps up QDK in the first ball of the over. The South Africa goes for a big hit, miscues it and it has landed straight into the mitts of Russell. LSG 73/5 after 10.1 overs

Tushar Bhaduri: The Kolkata Knight Riders team management has made no secret of the fact that they wanted a spin-friendly wicket at their home venue. But the curator didn't play ball saying they were not obliged to cater to the franchise's demands. Instead, it was the KKR pace bowlers Vaibhav Arora and Harshit Rana who got some pace and bounce from the Eden Gardens surface. The first three or four overs had the Lucknow Super Giants batsmen on a tight leash, before they broke free towards the end of the Powerplay. But Arora proved that there is more to the KKR bowling than just spin, when he scalped two in one over to dent the visitors – the dismissal of Aussie Marcus Stoinis, the hero of LSG's last game, with a short ball at the throat the most satisfying one.

Narine to bowl the 10th over and Krunal with a single to start. de Kock switch hits but it's straight to Russell in the deep. Another wicket goes down and it's the LSG captain who tries to alleviate the pressure. Goes for a sweep and Rinku takes the catch. LSG 71/4 after 9.4 overs

Shardul Thakur will bowl the 9th over and de Kock with a single to get this one started. Krunal on strike and he lofts the next ball over everyone as well as the ropes with a 6. The ball slips from Thakur's hand and it's a no ball for height. Free hit time. Full toss and a single off the extra ball. LSG 69/3 after 9 overs

The captain with the ball now and de Kock has pulled him for an excellent shot which is equalled by an ever better save by Jason Roy in the deep. Just 1 off the next 4 balls. Brilliant over by Nitish. LSG 58/3 after 8 overs

And another one bites the dust as Arora strikes again in the same over. A short ball surprises Stoinis and it's off his gloves and Iyer takes the catch. LSG 55/3 after 6.5 overs

Vaibhav Arora to bowl the 7th and a good sounding stroke from QDK brings him a single off the 2nd delivery. Mankad on strike and he's gone!!! He swings again but it does not get the required distance as Rana runs in and takes the catch!!! LSG 55/2 after 6.3 overs

Last over of the powerplay and Varun Chakravarthy in to bowl this one. Just 1 from the first 2 balls. Mankad pulls again and this time it's just over the fielder!! And a four to boot. Hard luck for Varun next as the delivery bamboozles the batter as well as the keeper as it goes behind for four. 50 up for LSG. Finishes the over with a slog sweep which goes to the ropes. LSG 54/1 after 6 overs

Rana will bowl the 5th over and Mankad starts him off with a boundary. The batter really needed that. Great next two balls as Mankad struggles to hit them. He finally cracks the 4th for a boundary through deep extra cover. Nothing wrong with the ball, just a good hit. Ends the over with another four, straight down the ground. LSG 39/1 after 5 overs

Arora runs in to bowl the 4th and Prerak Mankad swipes at it but gets nothing off it. Shuffles across and lofts one just inside the inner circle for 2. Another swing and a miss but this time Arora has overstepped. Free hit time. Pulls at it but gets the ball's line wrong. No run. A single next and de Kock on stike and he takes 2 more. The last ball is picked up off the legside for a maximum by QDK. LSG 27/1 after 4 overs 

Harshit Rana to bowl the 3rd and de Kock starts this over with a six!! That is what this man can do!!! But the bowler gets his revenge on the other side as a quick ball leads to Karan going for a pull, gets the top edge and a simple catch LSG 14/1 after 2.3 overs

Vaibhav Arora in to bowl the 2nd over and starts with a dot before Sharma takes a single. de Kock comes on strike and rotates strike. Sharma gets an edge and another single. Another single to end the over. LSG 7/0 after 2 overs 

Rana steams in to bowl thye first delivery of the match and Sharma off the mark with a single. 3 back to back dots as de Kock struggles to put bat to any of them. The last 2 are also dots. Fine over. LSG 1/0 after 1 over

The umpires make their way out in the middle. They are followed by Kolkata team who come out to a huge cheer. Karan Sharma and quinton de Kock in the middle. Harshit Rana opens the attack.

Here are the Playing XIs of the two sides for the #KKRvLSG clash ????

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Kolkata have started with the same team which defeated Chennai while there were two changes for Lucknow as Karan Sharma comes in for Deepak Hooda and Krishnappa Gowtham replaces Swapnil.

Kolkata Knight Riders Subs: Suyash Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, N Jagadeesan, David Wiese

Lucknow Super Giants Subs: Kyle Mayers, Yash Thakur, Daniel Sams, Yudhvir Singh Charak, Deepak Hooda

In the other match of the day, Chennai Super Kings have defeated Delhi Capiatls by a whopping 77 runs and became the second team, to qualify for the IPL play offs. Just 2 spots remain now. Follow action from that blog here.

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Karan Sharma, Prerak Mankad, Marcus Stoinis, Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya(c), Ayush Badoni, Krishnappa Gowtham, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mohsin Khan

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Shardul Thakur, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Rana: Will bowl first. Need to win by a big margin, want to play positively. Rinku has been one of the positives. Have done well in patches in other areas as well. Roy has given some good starts. There's Suyash who's done well too. Same team. Couple of changes - instead of Hooda, we have Karan. And Gowtham comes in for Swapnil.

Krunal: We would've also fielded first. At the end of the day, you have to play good cricket. We know where we stand in the table. Our destiny is in our hands. Focus is on playing good cricket. We defended really well in previous game. Eventually what matters is how we come today, put a total on the board and defend it.

We are here for the toss. The two captains are in the middle. The coin goes up and Nitish Rana wins the toss and opts to bowl against LSG.

Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh threw his weight behind Rinku Singh, saying that he is the new X factor of KKR and Russell's era is waning. 

“Now Rinku has become the X-factor for KKR, not Russell. Russell’s era is gone. It’s Rinku’s time now. Even if Rinku is sent up, he can do justice to his role. He is a player of different calibre and we will soon see India cap on his head,” Singh said.

If you take a look at the points table, you will realize how close all the 7 teams are to qualification. LSG are 3rd with 15 points while Kolkata are 7th with 12. A win needed for both.

Eden Gardens has been Andre Russell's olayground since he came to the Kolkata Knight Riders. The burly West Indies allrounder strikes at 193 at this venue, scoring 797 runs in 30 matches.