Texas Super Kings Registered Huge Win Against Los Angeles Knight Riders
All-rounder Mohammad Mohsin bowled a magnificent spell of 4/8 as the Texas Super Kings registered a 69-run victory over Los Angeles Knight Riders in the first match of the Major League Cricket tournament at the Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas on Thursday. The Super Kings put up 181/6 in their 20 overs before bundling the Knight Riders out for 112 in just 14 overs.
The Knight Riders found it difficult to get their innings going right from the start as speedster Rusty Theron dismissed Martin Guptill and Rilee Rossouw in the very first over. Calvin Savage and Gerald Coetzee backed up Theron’s effort by sending Nitish Kumar and Unmukt Chand back to the pavilion in quick succession. The Knight Riders were reeling at 20/4 in the fourth over.
Andre Russell gave a sliver of hope to the Knight Riders when he smashed a six and two fours off Coetzee in the fourth over, however, he kept losing partners at the other end. Captain Sunil Narine and Russell put the Knight Riders at a decent position at 103/5 at the end of the eleventh over, however, Mohsin got the Super Kings back into the game with two wickets in the twelfth over.
Dwayne Bravo put the final nail in the coffin when he dismissed Russell for 55 runs off 34 balls in the thirteenth over with the Knight Riders 73 runs away from the target. Mohsin wrapped up the match in the very next over with the wickets of Adam Zampa and Lockie Ferguson.
Earlier in the day, the Los Angeles Knight Riders won the toss and put Texas Super Kings into bat. Devon Conway got the Texas Super Kings off to a flying start with three boundaries in the first over, however, Lockie Ferguson dismissed Captain Faf du Plessis on the first delivery of the second over. The Knight Riders’ bowlers continued to shine as Ali Khan sent Lahiru Milantha packing for 17 runs off 14 balls in the sixth over.
But thereafter, the two experienced campaigners, Devon Conway and David Miller changed the momentum of the match through a 77-run partnership in just 49 balls. Conway took charge against fast bowler Corné Dry and struck him for two boundaries in the seventh over before Miller also struck two fours off Dry in the ninth over. Miller found a maximum in each of the tenth, eleventh and thirteenth overs and took the Super Kings to 113/2 in 13 overs.
The Texas franchise kept losing wickets at regular intervals after Conway fell to Adam Zampa in the fourteenth over for a fantastic innings of 55 runs from 37 balls. However, Mitchell Santner and Dwayne Bravo smashed four sixes between them in the last few overs to help the Super Kings post a formidable total of 181/6 in their 20 overs.
Brief Scores: Texas Super Kings 181/6 (David Miller 61, Devon Conway 55, Lockie Ferguson 2/23) beat Los Angeles Knight Riders (Andre Russell 55, Jaskaran Malhotra 22, Mohammad Mohsin 4/8) by 69 runs.
