Green falls victim to miracle stumping as Connolly lights up IPL

Topic:Twenty20

Fresh off his top score, Cameron Green copped another bad break in the IPL. (X: IPL)

The Kolkata Knight Riders have nabbed their first win in their seventh game of the IPL season, with Cameron Green steadying their run chase with 27 off 13 balls.

The pricey Australian recruit was dismissed by a glorious diving stumping by Rajasthan wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel.

Elsewhere, fellow West Australian Cooper Connolly cracked 87 runs off 46 balls as Punjab Kings continued their unbeaten start to the season. 

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Cameron Green has at last felt that winning feeling in the Indian Premier League with his Kolkata Knight Riders, but fell victim to a piece of wicketkeeping magic at Eden Gardens. 

Fresh from his top score of the season (79) in Ahmedabad two days earlier, Green and the Knight Riders got their first win of the season at the seventh attempt, beating Rajasthan Royals by four wickets.

Rajasthan chose to bat first and mustered only 9-155, but punished Green (0-27) in a powerplay over featuring four wides and 22 runs total, including sixes from wonder boy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (46 off 28) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (39 off 29).

The IPL's most expensive overseas player helped his side gain some equilibrium after they plummeted to 2-5 off just eight balls in reply, coming in to crack 27 off 13 balls.

But he was undone by a magical stumping down the legside by a diving Dhruv Jurel off Ravi Bishnoi.

The Knight Riders made heavy weather of the chase until a brilliant unbeaten 53 off 34 balls from Rinku Singh got them home by four wickets on 6-161.

In New Chandigarh, Australian Cooper Connolly delivered a spectacular display of clean hitting to help propel the Ricky Ponting-coached Punjab Kings to another rampant victory in their unbeaten campaign.

The giant scoreboard at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium read "Super Duper Cooper" as the Perth left-hander bludgeoned 87 off just 46 balls in the Kings' assault on the Lucknow Super Giants' attack.

Extraordinarily, the 22-year-old made only 19 off his first 22 deliveries while his partner Priyansh Arya (93 off 37) was going berserk at the other end.

"At 19 off 22, there was a little bit of panic stations," Connolly said.

"But I just tried to compose myself … then a couple of nice shots hit the middle and you start to get going."

Despite the slow start, he nearly caught his super-charged partner as they launched a partnership of 182 in just 13 overs, hitting five sixes off one Aiden Markram over that went for 32, including three in a row from Connolly.

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With fellow Australian Marcus Stoinis blasting 29 off 16 at the death, Punjab's 7-254 was the highest score of the IPL season.

Lucknow were never in the hunt, with Mitch Marsh well behind the rate early on despite his 40 off 28 balls.

Xavier Bartlett went for 54 off his wicketless four overs, but took a couple of catches as the Kings kept Justin Langer's Lucknow down to 5-200 for a 54-run victory.