KKR loses race to IPL play-offs by loss at home
A one-run loss in their last league match threw Kolkata Knight Riders out of the race for the play-off spots in the 2023 IPL. The victors, Lucknow Super Giants ensured their place by coming third in the league.
Despite the valiant efforts of their talisman, Rinku Singh, the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign came to an end without ensuring a place in the play-offs. They lost their final match to the Lucknow Super Giants and thus failed to come among the top four.
The Super Giants—the franchise is owned by the Kolkata-based business baron Sanjeev Goenka—have come third in the league with 17 points. For a place in the final, they must first win the match against the fourth-placed team and then defeat the losers of the match between the top two teams.
Rinku Singh’s last over heroics came in vain. He ended with a six but his team still fell one run short. His 67 came off only 33 balls. He has been the Knights’ talisman right through this edition of the IPL.
Earlier, KKR won the toss and chose to field. This decision by the captain Nitish Rane has come in for criticism as the team needed to put in a big score and then bowl out LSG quickly to achieve a big net run rate (NRR), so as to have any chance of coming fourth. They would still have had to wait for Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) match against the Gujarat Titans, as win for the former would have put them through.
RCB still needs to win its last match tomorrow, as a big won by the Mumbai Indians could result in a bigger NRR than RCB and ensure a fourth place. So the league is set for an exciting ending.
