Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) attempted to do a good job with the ball, but were completely outfoxed by a brilliant Mukul Choudhary. Mind you, KKR did an exceptional job in the absence of key bowlers such as Harshit Rana, Matheesha Pathirana, and Varun Chakravarthy. After all, Mukul Choudhary put KKR to bed with his whirlwind 54-run knock. Despite a solid show from the KKR bowlers, they were unable to stop one man – Mukul Choudhary – who single-handedly led LSG to their 2nd win of the season.
All hail Mukul Choudhary
Choudhary came into bat at number 7, pretty much at a situation when LSG had given up all hopes. In the first 8 deliveries that he faced, the uncapped batter struggled and managed to take singles or play dot balls. However, over the course of the next 19 deliveries, Mukul went absolutely berserk and finished with 54 runs to his name off just 27 deliveries, striking 2 fours and 7 sixes at a strike rate of 200 to guide LSG to an epic 3-wicket win.
Choudhary was bought by LSG for Rs 2.60 crore in the IPL 2026 mini-auction after the team engaged in a fierce bidding war with MI and mostly RR. He had registered for a base price of just Rs 30 lakh. The 21-year-old made his IPL debut earlier in the month against DC and had managed to create very little impact in the last two games, scoring 14 and 2. However, his whirlwind knock against KKR could be a life-changing innings.
Did KKR bowlers almost outdo LSG batters?
It all started with Vaibhav Arora getting rid of LSG openers Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh early on in the 5th over of the run-chase. A double strike in that over not only put the brakes on LSG’s momentum but also slowed things down after a good 40-run start in about 30 deliveries. Cameron Green, who finally managed to create an impact in his first over, managed to get the crucial wicket of LSG captain Rishabh Pant as the latter was sent packing for 10 runs off 9 deliveries.
Kartik Tyagi got rid of the dangerous Nicholas Pooan cheaply in the 12th over to put the Super Giants further on the back foot. However, KKR did suffer a scare as Ayush Badoni played a valiant 54-run knock. However, Anukul Roy struck twice to send Badoni and Abdul Samad packing. Sunil Narine joined the party late, as he got rid of Mohammed Shami in the 16th over.
However, little did KKR know that they were going to be torn apart at the fag end of the run-chase by Mukul Choudhary. Therefore, an improved performance with the ball by a depleted KKR bowling line-up saw no profit being earned as they were outfoxed by an uncapped batter despite their brilliance.
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