The 66th match of the IPL 2022 saw Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) taking on Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the DY Patil Stadium on May 18, 2022, in a must-win game for the Shreyas Iyer and co. For KL Rahul and his side, a win would be sufficient to qualify for the playoffs.
KL Rahul started well by winning the toss and choosing to bat first. They made three changes to their XI with Krunal Pandya out with a niggle and Dushmantha Chameera and Ayush Badoni dropped. This meant K Gowtham, Evin Lewis, and Manan Vohra came in.
KKR meanwhile brought in Abhijeet Tomar for Ajinkya Rahane.
However, it proved to be a graveyard for KKR bowlers as Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul hammered them to all parts of the DY Patil Stadium adding 210 runs in the process while remaining unbeaten. This was the highest-ever opening partnership in IPL history.
Quinton de Kock remained unbeaten on 140 in 70 balls with 10 fours and 10 sixes, while captain KL Rahul made 68* in 51 balls with 3 fours and 4 fours, as they added 210* runs and for the first time no wicket fell in 20 overs in first innings of an IPL game.
De Kock scored his second century in the IPL and his highest IPL and T20 score. This was also the third-best individual score in IPL behind Chris Gayle’s 175* and Brendon McCullum’s 158*.
The cricket fraternity was left in shock as De Kock and Rahul decimated the KKR bowling and set them a tough target of 211 runs to remain alive in the tournament. They were all appreciative of the duo on Twitter.
Here are some tweets:
