Kolkata Knight Riders failed to log in full points in their sixth attempt in IPL 2026 on Friday.
Ajinkya Rahane’s men had set it up nicely against Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad but a collapse in the middle overs left them at least 30 runs short. The Titans rode an elegant
86 off 50 balls from their captain Shubman Gill to reach
the 181-run target with two balls remaining and five wickets in hand.
Cameron Green finally struck form for the Knight Riders with a 79 off 55 balls and a brilliant catch to dismiss Gill but didn’t get enough support from the other batters.
The Knights fought back well to tie the Titans down with help from their spinners but Rahul Tewatia showed calmness in the end to pull off the win.
Flurry of wickets
Five wickets in a span of 22 balls for just 26 runs midway through their innings wiped out the good work Green had initiated.
Green, the Knights’ costliest buy this season, finally came good but the others fell by the wayside.
The Australian was involved in two fine partnerships — 55 off 43 runs with Rovman Powell and 60 off 23 balls with Anukul Roy — that helped KKR recover after they were reduced to 32/3 in the fourth over. The collapse resulted in KKR being able to compile only 41 runs for the loss of six wickets in their last six overs.
For the first time in IPL 2026, KKR decided to drop Finn Allen and gave his countrymate Tim Seifert a chance to open the innings with Ajinkya Rahane. But the New Zealander lasted only 14 balls before being dismissed by Kagiso Rabada.
The flurry of wickets at the other end even upset Green’s fluency. Three dots against Prasidh Krishna who kept nailing his yorkers, and a single helped Green keep strike for the last over. Then two swings and misses against Rashid Khan resulted only in six runs in the final over, including four byes. Green went from 75 off 44 balls to 79 off 55.
Amid all the misfortune, what should come as a relief for the Knights is Green returning to form. He enjoyed a lot of luck on the way but T20 is perhaps as much about fortune as it is about skills. He survived an early LBW shout, saw an outside edge fly to the boundary, and was dropped on 62 by Washington Sundar off the very next ball.
Green weathered the early storm before breaking free in the middle overs, smashing seven fours and four sixes. He particularly relished facing Rashid, taking him apart for five boundaries and four sixes before the Afghanistan spinner had him caught behind off the final ball of the innings.
Rabada, Siraj excel
KKR elected to bat first on Friday but were rocked early by the pace duo of Rabada (3/29) and Mohammed Siraj (2/23) who tore through the top order, extracting movement with the new ball. Ashok Sharma (2/45) and Prasidh (1/32) provided able support in the middle overs.
Siraj and Rabada had set the tone of the match in the Powerplay itself. Rahane was the first to fall, dismissed
for a golden duck in the opening over. Rabada then struck to dismiss Angkrish Raghuvanshi to leave KKR reeling. It was mainly due to Green that they recovered.