Youngsters Sam Curran and Nicholas Pooran played belligerent innings as Kings XI Punjab put on a respectable 183 for 6 against Kolkata Knight Riders in a must-win IPL game here on Friday.
While West Indian Pooran smashed 48 off 27 balls to give the innings initial impetus as he added 69 runs for the third wicket with Mayank Agarwal (36 off 26 balls), Englishman Curran walloped KKR bowlers to smash an unbeaten 55 off 24 balls to take the score past 180-run mark.
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For KKR, fast bowler Sandeep Warrier (2/31) was the most impressive as he removed the opening pair of Chris Gayle (14 off 14 balls) and K.L. Rahul (2 off 7 balls) in quick succession.
However, Pooran again showed his big-hitting prowess, hitting four sixes apart from three boundaries as he found an able partner in Agarwal.
Pooran was unlucky to miss out on a fifty as he was holed out in the deep mid-wicket region trying to hit a Nitish Rana half-tracker for six.
Once Agarwal and later Mandeep Singh (25) got out, it seemed that KXIP will have to settle for less than 170 but Curran had other ideas as 32 runs came off the last two overs.
In the 19th over, Curran hit Andre Russell for a couple of boundaries, before launching into countrymate Harry Gurney, hitting him for 22 runs, which included three fours and a six. In all, Curran hit seven fours and two sixes.
