The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are soaring high after their thrilling victory over the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Wankhede Stadium, a venue where they had not tasted success against MI in 12 years. The team is now setting their sights on a league double over the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), whom they defeated earlier this season at Eden Gardens.
During their match against MI, KKR was without emerging pacer Harshit Rana, who was serving a one-match ban for a Code of Conduct breach. Rana had been handed a one-match suspension along with a 100% of his match fee fine for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during a match against Delhi Capitals. The KKR pacer was found guilty of committing a Level 1 offense under Article 2.5 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct. Rana admitted to the offense and accepted the sanction.
Rana has made headlines this season for his unique “flying kiss” celebration. He had given a fiery send-off to SRH batter Mayank Agarwal earlier during the season and came close to doing the same to DC wicketkeeper-batter Abhishek Porel. However, former KKR captain Nitish Rana poked fun at Harshit during their flight to Lucknow. In a video shared by KKR on their official Twitter handle, Nitish asked Harshit, “How about another flying kiss?”
While Harshit couldn’t contain his laughter, he said “no” to Nitish’s request without any second thoughts.
In his last outing, Rana picked up two wickets against DC. In total, he has bagged 11 wickets in eight matches.
With 12 points, KKR is currently ranked second in the standings and has the highest Net Run Rate (NRR) of any team in the competition, at 1.096. The team is looking to continue their winning ways and cement their position in the top four.
