KKR stay alive as Allen, Raghuvanshi, Green, Narine flatten GT"

KKR beat GT by 29 runs at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, KKR: 247/2 → GT: 218/4. KKR move to 7th with 11 points, playoff hopes alive. GT stay 2nd with 16 points, playoff spot not sealed yet. After five successive wins in conditions that weaponised their bowlers and masked their limitations with the bat, Gujarat Titans (GT) found their kryptonite at Eden Gardens. In near-perfect batting conditions, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ran away to 247 for 2, the highest total anyone has ever scored against GT. Finn Allen set the tone, hitting 10 sixes in 35 balls on his way to an awe-inspiring 93, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Cameron Green carried the baton with impressive unbeaten half-centuries. GT had their chances to minimise the punishment they took, but they put down four mostly straightforward catches, including two off Allen. 10 sixes, 4 fours – SR 265.71. Dropped twice on 14 and 33 by GT, made them pay. 50 off 21 balls. Hit Kagiso Rabada for 94m and 92m sixes, then 3 straight sixes off Rashid Khan.95-run stand with Raghuvanshi for 2nd wicket. Joined elite list: Only 4th batter in IPL history with 10+ sixes in an innings more than once. B Sai Sudharsan, who provided much of that early impetus, retired hurt after taking a blow to the elbow, and returned to bat in the 17th over. In between, Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler scored half-centuries and put on a 128-run stand for the third wicket. But by the time Sai Sudharsan returned, the match was done and dusted, with GT needing an absurd 71 off 22 balls. The one man at the ground who could have pulled off that task was relaxing on KKR's bench: Allen, subbed out at the change of innings. The only sore point of the match for KKR, in the end, concerned the man who came on for Allen. Matheesha Pathirana made his first appearance of the season, but went off the field with a hamstring issue having bowled just 1.2 overs. Sloppy fielding: Dropped 4 catches – Allen twice, Raghuvanshi, Green. Bowling leaked: Rashid 0/57, Siraj 1/50, Kartik Tyagi 0/59. Matheesha Pathirana injured after 8 balls, hamstringBottom line: Allen’s powerplay carnage + Raghuvanshi-Green 108* stand set up 247. Narine’s 2/29 including Gill’s wicket on his 200th game sealed it. KKR climb to 7th and stay in playoff race; GT’s playoff confirmation delayed despite Gill, Buttler, Sudharsan fifties. When Allen had been at the crease, KKR had four straight overs - from the eighth to the 11th of their innings - that brought them 15 or more runs. GT only had two such overs in the first 14 overs of their innings. Gill hit Varun for two sixes and two fours in that 14th over, but KKR immediately responded by bringing back Narine and bowling out his last two overs. His first one went for 11, and that was still well short of the 16 an over that GT now needed. And his second - the 17th of the innings - pretty much sealed the game: five runs, and the wicket of Gill, caught on the boundary looking to sweep one of those fast, into-the-pitch, stump-to-stump Narine deliveries that generations of IPL batters have tried and failed to master.