Our team faced a tough battle against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Garden on Sunday. Despite skipper KL Rahul, Nicholas Pooran and Mohsin Khan rising to the challenge, KKR’s Phil Salt stole the show and we lost the contest by eight wickets.

Dressed in our maroon and green jersey honouring Mohun Bagan Super Giant’s rich football legacy, we posted a competitive 161/7 after being sent in to bat first. Nicky P was in fine form, smashing a fighting 45 off 32 balls while KL Rahul contributed with a handy 39 off 27. 

In reply, the hosts rode on Phil Salt’s 89 off 47 to chase down the target in 15.4 overs. Mohsin Khan delivered an economical spell of four overs for 29 runs while claiming two early wickets. His efforts gave us some hope, keeping us in the hunt as we tried to defend our total.

The loss also pushed us down to the fifth spot on the IPL 2024 points table where we are locked with multiple teams on six points, the only difference being the net run rate. It’s still early days and we’re just one spirited performance away from bouncing back to the top tier of the standings.

KL plays anchor before Pooran’s late surge

Quinton de Kock hit the ground running and dispatched the first two balls of the innings for successive boundaries but his promising start was cut short by Vaibhav Arora in the second over. 

Deepak Hooda, promoted to bat at No.3, was also back in the fifth over but KL Rahul ensured we did not face further setbacks in the first half of the innings. 

KL began his charge with a six sailing above extra cover in the second over and hit three cracking boundaries to take our score to 49/2 in the powerplay. 

After four tight overs, KL started the 11th over with a sublime six over deep point - his 300th in the T20s. However, he was caught out on the pull shot on the very next ball. 

KL’s elegant 39 off 27 laid the platform for the next batters to take the attack to the KKR. Stoinis and Badoni showed intent after KL’s dismissal, but Pooran’s 32-ball 45 provided a late impetus to our innings.

KKR challenged Pooran by bowling wide lengths outside off stump but the West Indian played a counter-attacking knock that included two boundaries and four maximums and helped us reach 161/7 in 20 overs. 

Mohsin Khan’s double blow to KKR

Shamar Joseph found swing and bounce on his IPL debut but wickets eluded our West Indian fast bowler. Mohsin Khan, however, came good. 

Mohsin stifled KKR's brisk start by taking out Sunil Narine with a cunning cutter in the third over and continued his impressive spell by dismissing Angkrish Raghuvanshi soon after.

However, the rest of our bowling attack did not click on the day and Shreyas Iyer and Phil Salt took the game away from us with a century stand.

While today’s result wasn't in our favour, trust us to regroup and return stronger. 

What next for the Super Giants?

We will head back to Lucknow to take on Chennai Super Kings at our fortress at the BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Brief Scores: Lucknow Super Giants 161/7 in 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 45; Mitchell Starc 3/28) lose to Kolkata Knight Riders 162/2 in 15.4 overs (Phil Salt 89*, Mohsin Khan 2/29) by eight wickets.