IPL 2025: Lucknow Super Giants have last laugh in Eden run-feast

For a while, the highest IPL total at the Eden Gardens — a mammoth 262 by Punjab Kings in a chase only last year — was in danger of being overhauled on Tuesday. This was when Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh were going hammer-and-tongs against Kolkata Knight Riders in a day match on Tuesday it what turned to be another run-feast in IPL 2025 so far.

The wicket was not quite the belter the scores suggest, with Lucknow Super Giants pipping the hosts to a four-run win in the last over, but neither was it the slow turner that KKR would have liked for their home matches.

While the combined fury unleashed by the in-form opener Marsh (six fours, five sixes in 81 off 48 balls) and Pooran (seven fours, eight sixes in 87 off 36 balls) was breathtaking by any stretch of the imagination, the Knights bowlers did not help their cause by not bowling to a plan on an unhelpful track.

With a sequence of matches producing sub-200 totals in between, one thought that the bowlers were getting some purchase with the use of saliva and the use of a second ball to counter the dew factor after the 11th over. However, things were back to square one with the contest turning out to be one which — in the words of South African Kagiso Rabada — would tempt one to rename ‘cricket’ as simply ‘batting’.

If there was some worry in the LSG ranks about the batting form of their skipper Rishabh Pant, the trio of Aiden Markram, Marsh and Pooran made sure he was not needed in his customary number four position. However, as the conditions eased out further for batting under lights, the Knights showed they were up for the challenge.

The men in purple set the tone against an LSG attack short on experience and quality as they raced to 90 for the loss of Quinton de Kock’s wicket after the powerplay overs. Ajinkya Rahane, the accidental skipper this season at 36 years, built on a blazing start as he reached his first 50 this season off 26 balls — a combination of sweetly timed pick-up shots for two sixes and the trademark crisp boundaries.

Rahane first combined with the boom-or-bust Sunil Narine for a 50-run partnership off 19 balls, then combined with his vice-captain Venkatesh Iyer for another 50 stand off 30 balls to raise hopes of an improbable chase. Record books show that KKR's previous best run-chase was a 206 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru back in 2019, but the reigning champions stayed in the hunt until the last over, with 24 needed and Rinku Singh still in.

This was when leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi held his nerve despite a couple of lusty blows from Rinku, and Lucknow finally managed the last laugh.