Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI Punjab faced each other in the 46th match of IPL 2020 on 26th October at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah. KKR was captained by Eoin Morgan while KXIP was led by Lokesh Rahul. KXIP won the toss and chose to bowl first.
From Kolkata Knight Riders, Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill started the inning but the failure of this opening pair continued as Rana got out in the first over without making a single run. Rahul Tripathi came to bat and returned to the pavilion at an individual score of 7 runs. Hence the team score was 10/2 in the second over only. In the same over Dinesh Karthik also lost his wicket which led the team under grand pressure. However, on one side Gill was batting confidently who was joined by captain Eoin Morgan. They both played well but in the 10th over Morgan also got out. Sunil Narine, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Pat Cummins also returned to the pavilion after making a few runs. In the 19th over Gill also got out, and the expectation of a big score from KKR was ended. At the end of 20 overs, KKR made 149 runs at a loss of 9 wickets and set the target of making 150 runs in 20 overs to the KXIP which was not much challenging also. Mohammed Shami was the most successful bowler from KXIP who got 3 wickets. Ravi Bishnoi and Chris Jordan also got 2 wickets each.
From Kings XI Punjab, opening pair of Lokesh Rahul and Mandeep Singh came to chase the target and gave an excellent start to the team. In 8th over Rahul got out. He made 28 runs in 25 balls. Chris Gayle joined Mandeep Singh, and they batted like a storm. The bowlers from KKR were not capable enough to stop both of these batsman hitting big shots and moving close to the target. They made a partnership of 100 runs in 61 balls. Gayle made 51 runs and got out in 19th over leaving the team almost on the verge of winning. Mandeep Singh made not out 66 runs in 56 balls, and Nicholas Pooran made 2 runs. KXIP won the match by 8 wickets leaving 7 balls spared. From KKR Varun Chakravarthy and Lockie Ferguson, each got one wicket. Chris Gayle was awarded player of the match for his excellent inning of 51 runs in 29 balls.