Kolkata – On the strength of the explosive batting of Jonny Bairstow not out (108), Shashank Singh not out (68) and Prabhsimran Singh (54), Punjab Kings defeated Kolkata Knight Riders with eight balls to spare in the 42nd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday. Defeated by eight wickets. This is Punjab’s third win in nine matches.

Punjab Kings team has achieved this victory while chasing the biggest target in T-20 history. Punjab team hit 24 sixes. At the same time, 18 sixes were hit towards Kolkata.

Chasing the huge target of 262 runs, Punjab’s opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and Prabhsimran Singh got off to a good start and added 93 runs in six overs for the first wicket. Prabhsimran Singh scored 54 runs in 20 balls hitting four fours and five sixes. He was run out by Sunil Narayan. Riley Russo scored 26 runs in 16 balls with the help of one four and two sixes. Jonny Bairstow played an unbeaten inning of 108 runs in 48 balls, hitting eight fours and nine sixes. At the same time, Shashank Singh also scored unbeaten 68 runs in 28 balls, hitting two fours and eight sixes. Punjab Kings scored 262 runs for two wickets in 18.4 overs and won the match by eight wickets. Sunil Narayan got the only wicket from Kolkata.

This is the first time in an IPL match that all four opening batsmen have scored half-centuries. Overall, this is the 11th time this has happened in a men’s T20 match.

Earlier, thanks to the stormy half-centuries of Phil Salt (75) and Sunil Narine (71), Kolkata Knight Riders had given the target of 262 runs to Punjab Kings to win.

Today at Eden Gardens here, Punjab Kings captain Sam Curran decided to bowl first after winning the toss. Coming to bat, Kolkata’s opening pair of Phil Salt and Sunil Narayan made a partnership of 138 runs for the first wicket, hitting fours and sixes. In the 11th over, Rahul Chahar gave the first success to Punjab by getting Sunil Narayan caught by Jonny Bairstow. Sunil scored 71 runs in 32 balls hitting nine fours and four sixes. Sam Curran bowled Phil Salt in the 13th over. Phil Salt played an innings of 75 runs in 37 balls, hitting six fours and six sixes.

Andre Russell was out after scoring runs in 12 balls (24), captain Shreyas Iyer in 10 balls (28) and Rinku Singh (5). Venkatesh Iyer scored 39 runs in 23 balls hitting three fours and two sixes. He was run out on the last ball. Ramandeep Singh remained unbeaten on six runs. Kolkata scored a huge score of 261 runs for six wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. KKR has crossed the score of 200 for the fifth time this season. He has scored the most runs in 10 overs in his history.

Arshdeep Singh took two wickets for Punjab. Sam Curran, Rahul Chahar and Harsh Patel dismissed one batsman each.