Kolkata beats Rajasthan for its first win in IPL, Punjab stays top

KOLKATA, India (AP) - Kolkata Knight Riders won for the first time this season in the Indian Premier League as Rinku Singh and Anukul Roy led their team to a four-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals on Sunday.

Singh scored 53 not out off 34 balls and Roy hit an undefeated 29 off 16 deliveries. They came together with host Kolkata in deep trouble at 85-6 in 13.3 overs and put on 76 runs in 37 balls.

The pair hit four sixes between them as Kolkata finished with 161-6 in 19.4 overs, its first win after five defeats and a no-result.

Earlier, Rajasthan chose to bat first at Eden Gardens and had overcome its own batting challenges to post 155-9 in 20 overs, buoyed by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi's 28-ball 46. Varun Chakravarthy took 3-14 in four overs, while pacer Kartik Tyagi claimed 3-22.

Kolkata is ninth in the 10-team league with three points. Rajasthan is third with eight points from six games.

In the evening game, IPL leader Punjab Kings notched up its second-highest IPL score, beating Lucknow Super Giants by 54 runs at New Chandigarh.

Priyansh Arya scored 93 off 37 balls, while Cooper Connolly hit 87 off 46, as Punjab scored 254-7 after losing the toss. Lucknow was restricted to 200-5 in reply.

Rajasthan openers Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 81 off 52 balls. The 15-year-old Sooryavanshi once again took center stage, hitting six fours and two sixes, while Jaiswal struck two sixes and four fours in his 39 off 29 balls.

Kolkata's spinners struck back as Chakravarthy had Sooryavanshi caught at deep midwicket, while Sunil Narine (2-26) dismissed Jaiswal at the other end, the duo falling within three overs.

Chakravarthy then had Dhruv Jurel stumped for five and bowled skipper Riyan Parag for 12. Narine dismissed Donovan Ferreira (7), with Rajasthan down to 124-5 in 16 overs.

Tyagi struck three times in the penultimate over, removing Ravindra Jadeja (9), Shimron Hetmyer (15) and Ravi Bishnoi in the space of five balls.

Kolkata started very badly. Jofra Archer bowled Tim Seifert for a golden duck, while Nandre Burger dismissed skipper Ajinkya Rahane, whose two-ball duck left his team at 5-2.

Bishnoi had in-form Cameron Green stumped for 27, and Ravindra Jadeja made it 52-4 in seven overs when impact player Angkrish Raghuvanshi was out lbw for 10.

Rovman Powell scored 23 and Ramandeep Singh got 10 with Kolkata struggling until Singh and Roy came together.

Their aim initially appeared to be avoiding an embarrassing score but Rajasthan relaxed and Kolkata took its chance.

Singh and Roy added 50 off 27 balls, with 21 runs needed off the last two overs. That became nine runs required in the last over and Singh smacked consecutive fours off the first two balls and then finished off with a six on the penultimate ball.

Punjab's innings was powered by near-centuries from Arya and Connolly after Mohammed Shami had dismissed Prabhsimran Singh for a golden duck. The pair put on 182 runs off 80 balls - the third highest stand (for any wicket) for Punjab in IPL history.

Arya smashed nine sixes overall - scoring 50 off only 19 balls in his second half-century of the season. At the other end, Connolly hit seven sixes and eight fours overall - he got to 50 off 35 balls.

The duo went after every bowler including Mohsin Khan and Avesh Khan, hitting five sixes between them off the 13th over bowled by Aiden Markram.

Punjab reached 200 in 16.3 overs, but lost both set batters as well as in-form skipper Shreyas Iyer in the process. Arya was caught at long-off, while Connolly was caught at short third man.

Iyer fell for just five runs but Marcus Stoinis (29) and Shashank Singh (17) pushed Punjab past 250 for only the second time. It had previously scored 262-2 against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024.

In reply, Lucknow's Mitchell Marsh scored 40 off 28 balls, while Ayush Badoni - promoted to opener - got a 21-ball 35. They scored 61 off 36 balls.

Marsh and skipper Rishabh Pant (43 off 23) added 48 runs off 31 deliveries for the second wicket.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Arshdeep Singh dismissed Marsh and Pant, respectively, as Lucknow reached 128-3 in 12.4 overs.

Nicholas Pooran was out for nine, caught off Marco Jansen (2-37), Lucknow lost momentum.

Markram was held back to the middle order, and scored a rapid 42 off 22 balls, with Mukul Choudhary 21 not out off 17. Despite Punjab's poor fielding efforts, Lucknow couldn't keep up with the asking rate.

It was a fourth loss in six matches for eighth-placed Lucknow.