Narine's miserly spell and Starc's brilliant final over restrict LSG to 161/7

Kolkata: Sunil Narine's miserly spell in the middle overs and Mitchell Starc's brilliant final over which yielded two wickets for six runs helped Kolkata Knight Riders restrict Lucknow Super Giants to 161 for 7 in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

LSG were reduced to 111 for 5 inside 15 overs, LSG got a recovery in the back end with Nicholas Pooran's counter-attacking innings.

Pooran smashed four sixes and two fours. Just when he was closing in on his fifty, Starc (3/28) had the last laugh in the final over.

The IPL's record buy Australian, who was heavily criticised for taking just two wickets from four matches and leaking 11 runs per over, dismissed a dangerous-looking Pooran (45 off 32 balls) when the West Indian batter slashed at an away going delivery to be gloved by Phil Salt.

Starc then dismissed Arshad Khan in the final delivery as LSG managed just six runs in the last over.

Playing his 14th successive season for KKR, Narine yet again showed his craft at Eden Gardens when he stifled LSG in the middle overs in his boundary-less show of 1/17 that could prove to be decisive in the end.

The Trinidadian came right after the power play just when Rahul and Badoni were looking to capitalise with 49/2 on the board.

With the wicket gripping, he varied his pace and deceived the batters with his clever variations and the duo chose to see through his overs.

Narine gave away just nine runs in his first two overs, and completed his quota in the 15th over, dismissing Badoni (29) with Angrkrish Raghuvanshi taking a well-judged catch at deep square leg.

Under the searing sun and on a two-paced wicket, LSG struggled to hold on to the momentum after the power-play with Narine and Rana bowling with precision.

Promoted to No. 4 after his 35-ball 55 not out, Badoni struggled to rotate strike as the KKR bowler duo did well to bring the run-rate down to 7.2 at the halfway mark.

Rahul, who looked at ease against the pacers, also began to choke under pressure but he took on Andre Russell in the 11th over for an upper-cut six over deep backward point.

In the next ball, he attempted a swivel shot but mistimed it straight to Ramandeep Singh at deep midwicket.

Under-fire Starc bore the brunt of Quinton De Kock's fury early on when the South African smashed him for successive fours to start with after KKR opted to bowl.

At the other end, Arora was wayward and Rahul tookon the inexperienced seamer, hitting him over extra cover.

Against the run of play, Arora drew first blood in the second over, dismissing de Kock for 10 in a rather sloppy display by the South African veteran who took a thickish outside edge to hole out to Narine at short third man.

Hooda's promotion to No. 3 also failed to yield desired result as he ate up a lot of deliveries, leaving Rahul stranded at the other end.

Hooda finally perished for eight in the fifth over thanks to Ramandeep's flying catch at deep backward point as KKR's fielding looked vastly improved.