#KKR

‘Ek flying kiss hojaye phir?’: Harshit Rana trolled by KKR teammate after IPL 2024 suspension – Watch | Cricket News

Danijones6 months ago03 mins

NEW DELHI: Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Harshit Rana faced a bit of light-hearted ribbing from teammate Nitish Rana while on their way to Lucknow. The team is set to play their next IPL 2024 game against Lucknow Super Giants on Sunday evening in Lucknow.On the flight, Nitish playfully asked Harshit if he would be giving out any flying kisses. “‘Ek flying kiss hojaye phir? (How about a flying kiss then?),” quipped the KKR batter.Harshit, amused, quickly responded with a “No!” as the duo shared a laugh. The friendly banter occurred as KKR prepared for their game on Sunday, 5 May, having flown out from Mumbai the day before. Watch: The incident highlighted the camaraderie within the KKR team, with players enjoying some downtime together before the intensity of their next IPL fixture.However, Harshit Rana has been in the news for more serious reasons as well. He was recently suspended for one match and fined his entire match fee for a second breach of the IPL Code of Conduct during the 2024 season.SEE ALSO: IPL 2024 POINTS TABLEHarshit’s suspension marked him as the first player in the IPL 2024 season to receive a ban for conduct violations.The KKR bowler’s first infraction occurred in a game against SRH on March 23, where Harshit was penalized for his exuberant celebration after taking a wicket. He had directed a flying kiss towards Mayank Agarwal, the dismissed batsman, during the match at Eden Gardens. This action led to his initial breach of the Code of Conduct.

IPL 2024: Guarded Lucknow Super Giants look to subdue dominant Kolkata Knight Riders | Cricket News

Danijones6 months ago04 mins

Coach Langer confirms Mayank unlikely to play in rest of seasonLUCKNOW: Playing their last match on home turf, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) will have to give it their best shot to edge past Kolkata Knight Riders at the Ekana cricket stadium on Sunday. KKR are a step away from a berth in the Playoffs with 14 spots.IPL ORANGE CAP | IPL PURPLE CAP | IPL POINTS TABLEIn their previous match against Mumbai Indians, LSG were far from convincing as they had to toil hard to chase the modest 145-run target.On the batting side, LSG skipper KL Rahul is in form up the order and has played some fine knocks, smashing fifties against Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings.Allrounder Marcus Stoinis also played well against MI, scoring 62 runs, and had also played a spectacular match-winning innings against CSK. Deepak Hooda has also played some decent knocks. Wicketkeeper-batter Nicholas Pooran has not been able to make his mark in the last 2-3 matches and it is time for him to put his best foot forward. Top-order batter Quinton de Kock missed the last match against MI and he was back early to the pavilion against Rajasthan Royals. On the bowling side, LSG’s bowlers will also face a harsh test with none of them making a real dent with individual brilliance. In the last match, Mohsin Khan, Marcus Stoinis, Naveen-ul-Haq and Mayank Yadav did well against MI. LSG will now have to go without pace sensation Mayank, who had walked out of the last match against MI due to his side strain acting up.Mayank is unlikely to play in the remainder of the IPL. LSG head coach Justin Langer said, “We’ll be praying that he can play hopefully in the play-offs but I am a realist as well. It will probably be difficult for him to get up for the back end of the tournament. He’s (Mayank) had a scan. He’s got a small tear in a similar area to where his last one (injury) was. So, it’s very unfortunate. We saw the impact he had when he came back into the game.” As for KKR, their bowlers were in excellent form against MI on Friday. All the bowlers, especially spinners Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine.

‘Mumbai Indians’ baffling decisions gave KKR the upper hand: Shane Watson slams Hardik Pandya’s captaincy

Danijones6 months ago06 mins

Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium for the first time in 12 years on Friday. Despite the lopsided 9-1 head-to-head record at the venue in favour of the hosts, KKR were the firm favourites going into the encounter on current form. KKR and MI sat on opposite ends of the IPL 2024 points table before the match started and it remained the same after the match ended. But in between, there was a lot of drama. It wasn’t as it was as the 24-run victory may seem like. In fact, for the better part of the KKR innings, it seemed like MI would maintain their spotless track record by returning to winning ways against the Purple army. Kolkata Knight Riders’ players celebrate after their team’s win in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match vs Mumbai Indians(AFP) KKR were 57/5 at one stage, really struggling to come to terms with the unusually slow Wankhede Pitch. That is when the KKR think tank used the Impact Player rule to the maximum effect. Manish Pandey came in place of Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who had already been dismissed. The experienced right-hander, playing in his first game of the season, stitched an all-important 83-run stand for the sixth wicket with Venkatesh Iyer to bring the KKR innings back on track. Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India’s general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now! Pandey was dismissed for 42 off 31 balls, but Iyer made sure KKR were poised to cross the 180-run mark quite comfortably. But they suffered another collapse when things were looking all uphill for the two-time champions. Andre Russell was run out due to a horrible mixup with Iyer and KKR folded for 169 in 19.5 overs. Iyer scored 70 off 52 balls. But the position that KKR were in, 169, was not bad by any means. In fact, it proved to be 24 runs too many for MI as the hosts were bowled out for 145 in 18.5 overs. Former Australian cricketer asserted that the Knight Riders had no right to win the match after losing the first five wickets so early in the clash against the five-time champion MI. Watson said he was baffled by some of MI’s tactics. Watson bowled over by KKR’s remarkable comeback against MI “KKR had no right to win that game tonight after the position they were in five wickets down. It just shows the fight that they have and also just some of the things that happened. Some of the decisions that were made whether that was bowling changes or batting lineup deployment, some of those decisions were very baffling just to really give KKR the upper hand in a game that was just on a knife’s edge at certain times,” Watson said on Jio Cinema. The 42-year-old further stated that this victory will give the Shreyas Iyer-led side a lot of confidence. “Look that will give KKR so much confidence to know that they don’t have to be at their very best and be in a position where the game was nearly done and they’ve got the fight and determination to find their way to actually get on the right side of the result,” the two-time IPL champion added. Mitchell Starc made a terrific comeback in the tournament returning with a figure of 4-33 in just 3.5 spells, handing KKR a 24-run victory. Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine both finished with identical figures of 2/22, including some big wickets in the first half of the chase which put KKR on top in the match. Following the win, KKR stand in second place on IPL 2024 standings with 14 points. Meanwhile, MI hold ninth place with 6 points by their name. KKR will next take on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow on Sunday.

‘Leaving Rinku Singh out of T20 World Cup team toughest thing’: Apologetic Ajit Agarkar finds no fault in KKR batter | Crickit

Danijones6 months ago05 mins

BCCI chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar said leaving Rinku Singh out of India’s 15-member squad for the T20 World Cup was one of the toughest decisions. India announced their squad on Tuesday (April 30) for the world event slated to take place in the USA and West Indies in June this year. The squad has a good mix of youth experience, but the non-selection of Rinku, one of India’s top performers in T20Is in the lead-up to the IPL, became one of the biggest talking points. India’s Rinku Singh plays a shot(BCCI Twitter) The 26-year-old Aligarh left-hander, who captured the cricketing world’s imagination with five sixes in an over during the previous IPL, made way for Shivam Dube in the main national squad while his name ended up being among the reserves. Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India’s general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now! Two days after naming the squad, Agarkar and captain Rohit Sharma answered queries from reporters in a press conference held in Mumbai. Agarkar said Rinku didn’t do anything wrong. The selectors couldn’t pick the dynamic left-hander in the final 15 as they wanted more bowling options. “(Not picking Rinku Singh) the toughest thing that we have to discuss. Rinku hasn’t done anything wrong, nor has Shubman Gill. It’s about the combinations. We are not quite sure about the conditions. So we wanted to have enough (bowling) options. We have picked a couple of wrist spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, to give Rohit more options. There’s Axar (Patel), a bowling all-rounder. It’s just unfortunate,” Agarkar said on Thursday. ‘Not Riku Singh’s fault that he has missed out’: Agarkar News agency PTI quoted a BCCI source privy to the developments in the selection meeting to claim that Rinku may have paid the price of the Impact Player rule in the IPL, which prevented him from having many opportunities with the bat in this IPL for his franchise Kolkata Knight Riders. The Impact Player rule has allowed every IPL franchise to field an extra batter when they are batting and replace him with a bowler later. As a result, Rinku, who has made a name for himself as a finisher, has played only 82 balls in 9 matches in IPL 2024, scoring 123 runs at a strike rate of 150. KKR have not needed his finishing skills in most of the matches this year as their openers, Phil Salt and Sunil Narine, have been doing the bulk of the scoring. Agarkar, however, said the decision to leave out Rinku had nothing to do with him. It was because of the combination the team management wanted to find the right balance in the USA and West Indies. “I don’t think it has anything to do with him. It’s not Rinku Singh’s fault that he has missed out. With two keepers who are both terrific batters, there’s already an extra batter sitting. So we thought of having an extra bowling option. Rinku is a travelling reserve; that’s how close he was, it’s a little tough on him but at the end of the day, you can only pick 15,” Agarkar said. India start their campaign in the T20 World Cup against Ireland on June 5.

IPL-17: KKR vs LSG | Kolkata Knight Riders seek home comfort against Lucknow Super Giants

Danijones7 months ago07 mins

Two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders will seek home comfort in their bid to return to winning ways when they face a depleted Lucknow Super Giants in an Indian Premier League match in Kolkata on April 14. The match will be KKR’s first of the five matches at home on the trot and the Gautam Gambhir-mentored side will be fully aware this can prove decisive to clinch the play-off spot for the first time since 2021. In the points tally, nothing separates the two teams, both of whom have secured three wins each, and lost their respective last-round matches. KKR’s over-reliance on their Caribbean ageing duo of Sunil Narine and Andre Russell was exposed by defending champions Chennai Super Kings when they lost by seven wickets in their previous outing. Narine (27) and Russell (10) failed with the bat and the team, who had posted two 200-plus scores from three matches on the back of the Caribbean duo’s blazing form, could manage an under par 137/9 at Chennai. That sums up KKR’s batting that has relied on some odd fireworks and missed an anchor in the absence of Nitish Rana (finger injury), who is slated to sit out of another match. In the spotlight since the beginning of the season, KKR captain Shreyas Iyer has failed to impress and his scores give an abysmal picture — 0, 39 not out, 18 and 34. Their another designated batter Venkatesh Iyer has three single digit scores this season to go with one odd fifty against Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the team, it seems, doesn’t have a clear role for him. From batting at No. 3 in their IPL opener against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Iyer was seen in the finisher’s role at No. 7 and No. 5 in their last two matches. Ramandeep Singh also had a lean run after an impressive 35 against SRH. The 2022 U-19 World Cup winning Angkrish Raghuvanshi has impressed the most following his 54 against Delhi Capitals. And he will like to return among runs after failing to convert his start against CSK. The most-talked about signing Mitchell Starc’s poor form with the ball has been the talk of the town. The Aussie speed gun has an economy of 11.00 and took his first wicket of this IPL against DC after giving away 100 runs in the first two matches. Having come as Impact Subs, left-arm orthodox spinner Anukul Roy has been impressive and he would like to forge formidable partnership with Narine. While KKR will be overwhelming favourites at Eden, LSG with their unassuming approach will not give up easily, even as they will miss their pace sensation Mayank Yadav for a second successive match. Recovering from a side strain that ruled him out of their match against Gujarat Titans, Mayank is doing “good” but skipper KL Rahul has said that he may take “a couple of more games before coming back”. Mayank’s replacement Arshad Khan failed to impress, conceding at 10.73 runs over as they failed to defend 167 at home against DC last evening. Mohsin Khan, who claimed 2/34 against Punjab Kings, could be a perfect replacement but it remains to be seen if he’s fully recovered from his hamstring injury that had sidelined the left-arm pacer. The team owned by Kolkata-based industrialist Sanjeev Goenka will hope for a much better show after mustering an average 167/7 against DC on Friday. The likes of Quinton De Kock and Rahul will look to return among runs, while they also boast of a powerful line-up down the order with the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran. That they also have a formidable slow bowling lineup in Ravi Bishnoi and Krunal Pandya will pose some tough questions for KKR batters. Teams (from): Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Lucknow Super Giants: KL Rahul (c), Quinton de Kock, Nicholas Pooran, Ayush Badoni, Kyle Mayers, Marcus Stoinis, Deepak Hooda, Devdutt Padikkal, Ravi Bishnoi, Naveen-ul-Haq, Krunal Pandya, Yudhvir Singh, Prerak Mankad, Yash Thakur, Amit Mishra, Shamar Joseph, Mayank Yadav, Mohsin Khan, K. Gowtham, Arshin Kulkarni, M. Siddharth, Ashton Turner, Matt Henry and Mohd Arshad Khan. Match Starts: 3.30 pm.