Punjab Kings Make History with Highest Score Chase in IPL, Defeat Kolkata Knight Riders

Punjab Kings with historic win against Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL. Punjab beat Kolkata’s target of 262 runs with eight balls to spare. This is the highest score chased and won in Twenty20 history. The innings of Jonny Bairstow (108*), Shashank Singh (68*) and Prabhsimran Singh (54) made Punjab’s win easy.

That was Punjab’s strategy against Kolkata at the Eden. The performance of the Punjab bowlers who came to the field was without pressure from a huge score of 262. Punjab’s score reached 93 in the Powerplay itself. Prabhsimran got out in the last ball of the sixth over. His innings of 54 off 20 balls included four fours and five sixes.

Bairstow continued where Prabhsimran left off. Punjab’s score reached 132 in 10 overs. Bairstow added 85 runs for the second wicket in a partnership with Riley Russo. Narine Rousseau returned who scored 26 runs. With Shashank Singh coming of age, Punjab’s score jumped with ease. Bairstow reached his century in 45 balls. Bairstow was also the second fastest player to score a century for Punjab.

Then it was Shashank’s turn. The partnership got 18 runs off Dushmantha Chamera’s over and 25 runs off Harshit Rana’s over. Bairstow’s contribution was just seven runs. Shashank’s half century came in 23 balls. Shashank’s innings of 68 off 28 balls included two fours and eight sixes. There were eight and nine sixes in Bairstow’s innings of 108 runs.

Earlier, Kolkata scored 261 runs for the loss of six wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Phil Salt’s innings (75) and Sunil Narine’s half-century helped the hosts. Arshadeep took two wickets for Punjab. Andre Russell (24 off 12 balls), Shreyas Iyer (28 off 10 balls) and Venkatesh Iyer (39 off 23 balls) played their part in building the big score.