New Chandigarh, April 15: Harshit Rana claimed three wickets while the spin duo of Varun Chakaravarthy and Sunil Narine bagged two scalps each as Kolkata Knight Riders bundled out Punjab Kings for 111 in 15.3 overs in the IPL 2025 fixture at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.

Opted to bat first, Punjab Kings had a flying start with openers Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya pressing on throttle against Anrich Nortje and Vaibhav Arora in the powerplay. It was Arya who took the charge on speedster Nortje, who was making his KKR debut, and slammed two fours in his first over.

In the next over, Prabhsimran stepped on the gas and scored two fours and a six before Arya joined with a boundary to make it 20 runs from the over.

Pacer Harshit Rana's introduction to the attack in the fourth over gave some respite to KKR as he sent back Delhi opener Arya for 22 with Ramandeep Singh completing a fabulous catch in the deep. A ball before, Arya hammered the pacer over extra cover for an 82-metre maximum.

Punjab captain Shreyas Iyer joined Prabhsimran in the middle but the former's stay on a two-ball duck. It was the start of a horrific batting collapse for the home side.

To maximise the situation, Rahane brought in Varun Chakaravarthy and the move worked well as the spinner clinched IPL debutant Josh Inglis (2) to give another blow to Punjab in the powerplay.

However, Prabhsimran tried to release the pressure with two successive sixes off Harshit but it was the latter who had a last laugh. The opener departed after scoring 15-ball 30 including three sixes and two fours as Punjab were 54/4 after the end of the powerplay.

The scenario didn't improve for Punjab as Nehal Wadhera (10), who got a promising start, gave away his wicket to Nortje in the ninth over. Chakaravarthy got the better of Glenn Maxwell (7) in the next over to bag his second scalp of the night.

Narine, from the other end, sent back the impact substitute Suryansh Shedge (4) and Marco Jansen (1) in the same over to leave Punjab tottering at 86/8 in 11 overs.

Shashank Singh, who was trying to take the side to a respectable total, was trapped in front of the wickets by Vaibhav Arora to make sure he didn't miss out on the golden opportunity. Shashank contributed 18 runs with the help of a six and a four.

In the end, a mix-up between Arshdeep Singh and Xavier Bartlett resulted in the dismissal of the latter as Punjab Kings were bundled out for 111/10 in 15.3 overs.

Brief scores: Punjab Kings 111/10 in 15.3 overs (Prabhsimran Singh 30, Priyanash Arya 22; Harshit Rana 3-25, Varun Chakaravarthy 2-21, Sunil Narine 2-14) against Kolkata Knight Riders.

--IANS

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