KL Rahul led his side from the front as Punjab beat Kolkata by 5 wickets in a nail-biter on Friday at the Dubai International Stadium.
Put to bat first, Kolkata’s new-found gem Venkatesh Iyer guided his side from the start. Providing the team an initial momentum, the 26-year-old all-rounder smashed 67 off 49 including 9 fours and 1 six.
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Apart from him, Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana scored 34 and 31 respectively for Eoin Morgan’s side. A quick fall of wickets in the last 3 overs courtesy of Arshdeep Singh and Mohd Shami restricted Eoin Morgan’s men to 165.
In reply, Punjab who were without the service of Chris Gayle got a good start with KL Rahul and Mayank Aggarwal who posted a valuable 70-run partnership. With a blazing 67 off 55 the skipper who almost played full 40 overs, made sure to take his side to the finishing line. His heroics with the bat, and Arshdeep’s 3 wicket haul, helped rekindle Punjab's hope in this year’s IPL as they leapfrogged to the 5th position from 7th in the points table. With the defeat, Kolkata still remains at the 4th position in the IPL points table.
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