Punjab Kings (PBKS) suffered another agonising defeat on May 8 (Monday) as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) held their nerves and registered a five-wicket victory at the iconic Eden Gardens. Defending a score of 179/7, the PBKS bowlers took the match to the final ball but Rinku Singh whipped Arshdeep Singh's delivery for a boundary and rolled out the Knight Riders' path to a victory. Arshdeep had a tall task of defending six runs off the final over against Andre Russell and Rinku. The left-arm pacer bowled well and nailed the yorkers until the last ball of the over.
KKR needed 26 runs off the last two overs with Sam Curran bowling the penultimate over of the game. Russell smoked Curran for three sixes in the over as KKR managed to score 20 runs from the left-arm seamer's over. Curran has been struggling with the ball in recent matches and on Monday as well, the England seamer was the most costliest among all bowlers. Curran conceded 44 runs in three overs and failed to pick up even a single wicket.
Former England spinner Graeme Swann reckons that Currant is finally feeling the pressure of the price tag. The left-arm seamer became the costliest player in IPL Auction when PBKS forked out a whopping sum of Rs 18.5 crore to secure Curran's services.
"You have got to feel for Sam Curran because he is starting to feel the pressure of the price tag. He couldn't quite execute his plans tonight," Swann was quoted as saying on Jio Cinema
The English all-rounder has struggled immensely with the ball in the ongoing edition of the cash-rich tournament. In 11 matches, he has bagged just seven wickets while conceding runs at an economy rate of 10.28 in the process. Curran's venomless spells with the ball have directly impacted PBKS' performance as the franchise has been involved in several close matches which have been decided by one or two bad overs.
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