Follow UsLWLWL - This has been Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 campaign so far. They had a chance to win back-to-back matches for the first time this season. But as things turned out, it was Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) who won two matches in a row for the first time this season.
KKR were well-placed in their chase of 239. They needed 90 runs more to win in the last eight overs with two well-set batters, Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer, at the crease.
In came Shardul Thakur to change the course of the game. He started off his second spell with five continuous wides, and that seemed to have broken the momentum Ajinkya Rahane had. The KKR skipper was batting on 54 off just 30 till the start of the over.
However, that did not seem to be the case as Rahane scored seven of the eight runs off the bat that over but then failed to put away a full toss and hit it straight to the fielder at cover.
That's where the KKR collapse started. They lost their next four wickets after Rahane's dismissal for just 32 runs in the next four overs and that proved to be too much to recover from.
Before Shardul's over, KKR had a win% of 59, but once Rahane was dismissed at the end of that over, the tide shifted towards LSG, as they now boasted of a win% of 53, according to Criclytics.
Furthermore, at the start of the 18th over, LSG had firm control of the match, with a win% of 89. By the time Rinku Singh's fireworks came about in the end, it was a lost cause for KKR, who eventually fell short by four runs to bring curtains on a match that could have been in their bag.