Opener Phil Salt smashed 89 off 47 balls and Mitchell Starc took 3 wickets against Lucknow Super Giants, which lead Kolkata Knight Riders to victory over them at the Eden Gardens on Sunday. Batting first LSG scored 161-7 in 20 overs. KKR reached the target in 15.4 overs establishing a win of 8 wickets.
KKR won the toss and elected to bowl first. Mitchell Starc was excellent today. The pacer opened his account with the wicket of Deepak Hooda inside the powerplay. KKR bowlers restricted LSG to 49-2 in the first powerplay. At last they restricted Lucknow Super Giants at 161 for 7 in 20 overs. Starc bagged three wickets and gave 28 runs in 4 overs. Vaibhav Arora, Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Andre Russell got one each. Sunil Narine bowled another brilliant spell of 1/17. Nicholas Pooran top-scored with a 32-ball 45. Captain KL Rahul contributed with 39 off 27 balls.
KKR batter showed unmerciful treatment towards LSG bowlers. Though Sunil Narine dismissed early, opener Phil Salt struck a magnificent 89 not out off 47 balls. West Indies speedster Shamar Joseph who played his maiden IPL match for LSG against KKR, conceded 22 runs in his opening over. Captain Shreyas Iyer was unbeaten on 38 off 38 balls. KKR chased down the target of 162 in just 15.4 overs and registered their first IPL victory over LSG.