KKR vs LSG highlights: Mukul Choudhary’s 27-ball 54 help Lucknow beat Kolkata by 3-wickets

What an innings that is from Mukul. He took his side across the line out of nowhere. It has to be the game of the season, and that innings has to be among one of the best from the emerging players coming up this season. Kolkata will be scratching their head how they have lost this contest, and that once again shows you can never be complacent in this game, and anyone can play an innings of a blinder from any point in the innings. We will be right back with the presentation do stay with us folks.

Mukul is playing a nice little gem of an innings. He is getting a few boundaries away well, and it does seem like there is still hope here, but it is a very, very difficult ask from here, but Mukul does seem to have the power game to outmuscle the bowlers. Well, Kolkata did seem like they had it in control, but in the last 10 minutes, things have turned around their head. Cameron Green is the bowler Rahane has turned to here. The pressure is rising in this game; the batter is setting himself for those slower ball bumpers here.

Abdul Samad is the latest batter to fall, and it is left-arm spinner Anukul Roy who got the breakthrough. Samad tried to work the ball on the leg side, however, the ball brushed through the pads and went onto the stumps. He was the last batter who gave Lucknow a genuine chance of winning this game, but now one would feel that Kolkata has a massive edge. Badoni is fighting from his end, but he needs someone from the other end who could take the bowling. In the previous game, we have seen Mukul struggle a bit. As we update, Badoni has got his half-century. As we update Badoni has fallen here.

Sunil Narine is bowling brilliantly here. He is getting some turn, and it is getting tricky for Lucknow at this point in the game. Pooran, after hitting a six, is struggling a bit to get his innings going. Badoni, who has started the innings pretty well too, has gone off the boil in this innings. They have to calculate this chase here from Lucknow; they needed a good 80 from the top three, which they did not get. Pooran and Badoni in the middle have to build a partnership and take this game as deep as possible, and let the dew settle in, as things may get easier.

Badoni, since walking into the middle, has already played a couple of lovely shots to get his innings underway. One of the prominent features of Badoni is the accuracy he manages to get through the square of the region and how consistently he can squeeze those boundaries and keep the strike-rate on par with good hitters. He is already 20 runs from 13 balls, which is an exceptional start for an innings for someone who is not as powerful as him. He just finds the areas in square regions where he scores his runs, and he is exceptionally good at doing that.

Vaibhav Arora has picked up Mitchell Marsh here. It was the shorter ball from the batter, which he tried to pull and was caught at square-leg. As we update, Arora has picked up another wicket, and it is Mitchell Marsh this time, who got undone by the shorter one. It was down the leg-side and there for the hitting, and March gloved it to the keeper and Kolkata are now back in the game. Pant is in the middle it will be intresting to see Lucknow will use here in the middle order because this where their vulnerabilities start to open up.

It's not a placid KKR wicket we're used to. You know, it's not a 220-250 wicket, I think 180-190 is a good score, once we control the powerplay. (What were the discussions between you and Green?) It was just a case of holding your shape a little bit longer, it's not that placid wicket where the ball is sliding onto the bat. So you have to hold your shape a little bit longer. That's what we were talking about and try our best to get bat to ball. (Did you fancy that match-up [against Siddharth] a little bit more than the matchup against Rathi?) Yeah, definitely. You know, it's something that I work on, not try to go and push around the spinners, but be a little bit more aggressive in my mindset against the spinners. And I've realized over the last 12 months or so, once I be aggressive, I normally get in better positions to bat the spinners. (We heard you have been bowling) I have let go a few deliveries in the net. It's been a while I haven't bowled in a game, but if called upon, I'm ready.

Well, this partnership has put on another 50-run stand here, while Powell has been the chief contributor in the partnership. Green, in the last couple of deliveries, started to get some momentum into his innings, a six against Shami. The relief on his face was visible. This partnership has reconstructed the innings, but it will be enough to come in the second innings. They have two finger spinners do KKR, and if there is not going to be any dew, they might trouble the LSG batting line-up, but still, it seems like they are a few runs short because of the rates at which they went early in the innings.

That is top-notch from Digvesh Rathi. Cameron Green just had a tough time getting across the other end. The wicket is getting a bit slower. A similar trend was seen during KKR's game against SRH, but Nitish and Klaasen played pretty well that day, and Powell and Green need to play a similar game today, but they do not have as much time to do so. There are 2 overs of Prince Yadav after this one from Avesh, and one from Shami, and these batters need to pick up their bowlers and try and squeeze a couple of 20-run plus overs of the final four.

Ajinkya Rahane has fallen here. Digvesh Rathi is the wicket-taker. He hit one straight to mid-wicket inside the ring. Shami, there were a few viewings from the third umpire to see if the catch was clean. After a few replays, the third umpire says he is happy. Cameron Green has walked into the middle. This is a very good situation for him to walk into. As we update, Raghuvanshi has fallen here. It is Siddarth who got the wicket. Well, this is not what Kolkata wanted at this stage of the innings. They will have two new batters in the middle now.

Both Rahane and Raghuvanshi have put on a 50-run stand here, but their strike rate for this surface seems a bit concerning for Kolkata on the overall score they can get. They need to accelerate in this middle phase. The outfield is lightning quick today. Everything that is played in the gap is running away, unless Kolkata here gets 220-230 with the bowling, they have it might be a bit tricky for them to curtail these runs. One good thing, though, they have Rovman Powell in their batting order, who is a super-hitter.

Finn Allen is the first wicket to fall here, and it is Prince Yadav who got the scalp. The ball was moving away while Allen tried to power the ball through the leg-side and got the leading edge and flew towards third-man region, and although there seems to be some uncertainty if Rathi's leg touched the boundary cushion, Allen, not the third umpire, has not made a lot of fuss about it. As we update, Siddarth has come into the attack, a bit of a strange decision from Pant yet again, with the ball swinging and seaming as much, Prince could have gone on for another over here.

Well, this has been a very high-scoring venue. One of the reasons, obviously, the quick outfield. The other is the dimension. Not that big. 65 on my left, 64 on my right, straight down it's 74. Now, I've got Faf du Plessis here, Faf. Tell us about this pitch. It's the same pitch used the other night where it swung around, but it does look like it's a little bit on the drier side. Yeah, I've always felt when you come here at Eden Gardens, it's assessing the pitch very early on. You'll straight away see if there's swing in the air, does the ball move around off the surface. You're right, it looks slow, and especially if you go to the other side, you'll see there's a very, a lot of dry patches. So expect the spinners to come from this end. But this venue has been a batting first kind of a venue. Out of last six games, four teams batting first have won. KKR did that. But do you reckon with the weather around, you might want to chase? 100%. As captain and as teams, you look up and you go, what is the weather saying? And we always feel that when there's a bit of rain around, you want to chase because Duckworth-Lewis is a massive advantage chasing. Well, I completely agree with Faf here. Even though this looks like on a drier side, quick outfield, good pitch in terms of ball coming onto the bat, this should be a high-scoring venue, a high-scoring game rather. But the other important thing, watch out for the new ball. It might swing around a little bit.

We wanted to bowl. (I'm thinking back to the previous game actually, that's why I asked that) That match didn't get over, so you never know. Just one change - Sunil comes in place of Blessing, Varun is still recovering from his hand injury. When he (Green) is allowed to bowl,we will probably see him, the combination gets better, so Rovman Powell plays, when Cam Green bowls then we have that extra bowler with us. We just want to, as a batting unit, watch the ball and react, rather than putting pressure on ourselves, trying to focus on a certain target and then try to achieve that. I think just being in the moment, try to react and watch the ball.

Kolkata Knight Riders Impact subs - Manish Pandey, Vaibhav Arora, Tejasvi Dahiya, Rahul Tripathi, Tim Seifert

Lucknow Super Giants Impact subs - Ayush Badoni, Matthew Breetzke, Shahbaz Ahmad, Mayank Yadav, Himmat Singh

Mitchell Marsh, Aiden Markram, Rishabh Pant(w/c), Nicholas Pooran, Abdul Samad, Mukul Choudhary, Manimaran Siddharth, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Digvesh Singh Rathi, Prince Yadav

LSG head coach talking pre-match: (listening to Michael Jackson just before he came here for this interview) "Always in a good mood, Doully. The one thing I love about the IPL, and I explain to people back in Australia, around the world, you come here, it's like going to a Coldplay concert, or in this case, a Michael Jackson concert. So there's always music, there's always noise. The atmosphere's awesome, so it's great to be here. (on their win in the last game) Oh, as we know, they're all important. Every game, everyone's under, the competition's so strong that every point counts, right? And the most pleasing thing about Rishabh the other night, we talk about in the batting group taking responsibility. He did that by God getting us those points. But more important, the way he ran between the wickets, the way he wicket-kept, the way his energy in the field and his captaincy was so clear, that was the more, as pleasing as the two points. (on tonight's game) Oh yeah, I mean, we keep hearing that word momentum, Doully. Sometimes I agree with it, sometimes I don't. But all I, what I expect tonight at Eden Gardens, the rain's gone, which is brilliant, and it's a great place to play cricket. It'll be a high-scoring game, as we'd expect. We're very well prepared for this game, so we'll be looking to put our best cricket onto the park. (have you settled on your top-four?) Oh, in a perfect world, it's very settled. Obviously, there's little factors that come in throughout, but, you know, I've seen that Mitch and Aiden up the top was a very powerful combination. They loved batting together. We've got Rishabh, Nicky P, Aayush. We've got some other really good young players, you know, in and amongst it. So we're lucky to have plenty of talent. Now it's just a matter of executing the plans."

"His numbers in the last four years have not been that bad. He averages 30 and strikes at 148 over 30-odd games. People are talking about dropping him. It's a better record than what Rohit has got in the last four years. It's an equal record to Ishan Kishan in the last four years. You are not talking about dropping any of those blokes. Hence his frustration. But it comes down to the pressure from a captaincy point of view," Doull said in a conversation on Cricbuzz.

"Are we giving Mohammad Shami enough credit, and when will we actually give him credit? It's a big question. Why are we not celebrating him? I am the same person who was saying that the selectors have to choose, and if they are not selecting, they might have seen him, his fitness, and whatever," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.

"He had a strong Ranji Trophy season for Bengal. I still remember that semifinal, even though Bengal lost, he picked eight wickets. He was instrumental in taking the team that far," said Ganguly.

Toss won away from home: 4/7

Matches won after toss win away from home: 2/4; Bat first: 1/1; Field first: 1/3

Matches won after toss loss away from home: 2/3; Bat first: 2/3; Field first: Nil

"He's definitely an empowering, players-first type of captain from what I've observed so far. Of course, he still guides and offers suggestions when needed. As a keeper, it can be difficult at times when you're 30 yards back to run up to the bowler and give advice, but he has experienced players like Aiden (Markram) and (Nicholas) Pooran around him to help with that.

"I've been really impressed with Rishabh. He genuinely wants the team to do well. The other day I heard him say, 'What else can I do for the team?' When your leader thinks like that, the players naturally follow," he added.

Eden Gardens have dished out batting friendly pitches in recent years and that is unlikely to change. The pitch that will be used on Thursday will be the same as the one that was to be used in the match against Punjab Kings. The rain and humidity is bound to play a role though. There is an orange alert in place for both Wednesday and Thursday.

"I see a raw, young, highly skilled Indian bowler that's got huge potential. His skills are very exciting and hopefully I can work with him for a long period of time and do whatever I can to help him achieve his potential. But in terms of what I think he's capable of, I think he's capable of playing for India in the future, absolutely, yes,

Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (C), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (WK), Cameron Green, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Sunil Narine, Kartik Tyagi, Varun Chakaravarthy/Navdeep Saini, Blessing Muzarabani, Vaibhav Arora