KOLKATA – Mag­nif­i­cent half-cen­turies from West In­di­an Nicholas Pooran and Aus­tralian Mitchell Marsh helped the Luc­know Su­per Gi­ants (LSG) to a nar­row four-run win over the Kolkata Knight Rid­ers (KKR) in their thrilling In­di­an Pre­mier League clash at Eden Gar­dens on Tues­day.

The left-hand­ed Pooran slammed an ex­plo­sive un­beat­en 87 off 36 balls, while Marsh ham­mered 81 from 48 balls to pow­er LSG to their sec­ond-high­est IPL to­tal of 238 for three.

KKR’s chase start­ed strong, with a 90-run pow­er­play. How­ev­er, a mid­dle-or­der col­lapse de­railed their mo­men­tum, and they could on­ly man­age to get 234 for sev­en.

Af­ter be­ing asked to take the first strike, LSG got a sol­id start from open­ers Marsh and Aiden Markram, set­ting the tone with a 99-run open­ing stand.

The duo played watch­ful­ly against open­ing bowler Vaib­hav Aro­ra but tar­get­ed the oth­er end. Spencer John­son, re­turn­ing to the XI, leaked 30 from his first two overs, while Harshit Rana con­ced­ed 16 in the sixth as LSG end­ed the Pow­er­Play strong­ly.

It was Harshit Rana who would even­tu­al­ly get the break­through when he re­moved Markram for 47. Pooran then joined Marsh and the pair stepped up a gear, adding 71 runs in just five overs.

Marsh was par­tic­u­lar­ly ag­gres­sive against West In­di­an Sunil Nar­ine, tak­ing the spin­ner for two fours and a six on his way to his 36 ball fifty.

He would even­tu­al­ly be­come the sec­ond wick­et to fall for 81 with the score on 170, as An­dre Rus­sell had him caught in the 16th over.

Pooran’s bru­tal hit­ting, how­ev­er, con­tin­ued, and he blast­ed his way to a 21-ball fifty and fin­ished un­beat­en on 87 off 36 balls with sev­en fours and eight six­es. The left-han­der took a lik­ing to West In­di­an team­mate Rus­sell, tak­ing the Ja­maican for 24 runs in the 18th over.

Af­ter los­ing Quin­ton De Kock ear­ly for 15, KKR, with the likes of Nar­ine and Ajinkya Ra­hane, made it clear that they were not go­ing to let up and take the run chase light­ly, as the pair blast­ed their way to a 90-run Pow­er play.

Nar­ine was even­tu­al­ly dis­missed for 30 by Digvesh Rahti, but Venkatesh Iy­er joined Ra­hane, and the pair added 71 runs for the third wick­et.

The dis­missal of Ra­hane for 61 in the 13th over sig­nalled a col­lapse, as dis­ci­plined death bowl­ing from LSG en­sured they got over the line, de­spite 45 from Iy­er and 38 not out from Rinku Singh.

CMC

Sum­marised scores

Luc­know Su­per Gi­ants 238 for 3 (Pooran 87 not out, Marsh 81, Markram 47, Harshit 2-51) vs Kolkata Knight Rid­ers 234 for 7 (Ra­hane 61, Venkatesh 45, Rinku 38, Thakur 2-52). LSG won by four runs.