NEW DELHI: Opening batter
Phil Salt
smashed a fiery unbeaten 47-ball 89 after pacer
Mitchell Starc
's superb spell as Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday began their five-match home stretch with a lop-sided eight-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants at the Eden Gardens.
After an all-round bowling display restricted Lucknow to a below-par 161 for 7, the Kolkata batters made light work of the chase, accomplishing the target with 26 balls to spare.
The defeat for KL Rahul's Lucknow turned out to be the first-ever against Kolkata in the IPL.
Prior to the heavy defeat on Sunday, Lucknow had met Kolkata thrice in the IPL and had a 100 percent record against the Men in Purple.
On all the other three past occasions, Lucknow won the game batting first.
As KKR registered their first-ever win over LSG in four matches, they also became the second team after Delhi Capitals this season to chase down a 160-plus total against LSG.
Prior to the defeats against DC and KKR, LSG had won each of the 13 IPL matches while defending a 160-plus total.
After the defeat, skipper KL Rahul admitted that the defeat was a proper hammering and will be tough to digest for the team.
"One of those days, it was a proper hammering. Games like these are tough to digest and we have seen in IPL and every team goes through that. We will try and work out what went wrong and come back better. Not panicking (about back-to-back losses), need to figure out where we went wrong and the last couple of games we haven't been able to get past 160 and that's something we want to see and be better at it," Rahul said after the defeat.
With three defeats and an equal number of wins in six games, Lucknow currently sit at the sixth spot on the points table.
KKR, on the other hand have 4 wins in 5 matches and are at second spot.
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