Powell blitzkrieg powers LAKR in stunning chase

Los Angeles Knight Riders made a dramatic return in the second half of their chase against Texas Super Kings to secure their first win in their recently inaugurated home ground, the Knight Riders Cricket Field in Pomona. The central character in this chase was Rovman Powell, who tonked his way to a 27-ball 73 - an innings studded with six fours and six sixes. With this win, all six teams have the same number of points (6).

The venue that had overwhelmingly sided with the bowlers in the first two games there, finally allowed batters to breathe a little freely on third attempt. TSK opener Saiteja Mukkamalla made the most of this opportunity to score a 55-ball 80, which included eight fours and four sixes - one of which landed outside the stadium. TSK were still not quite swift in the early stages of the innings, having lost Faf du Plessis and Rilee Rossouw cheaply. Mukkamalla plotted his team's recovery in the company of Shubam Ranjane, who played risk-free for his 30-ball 28. Their partnership, worth 66 off 55 took the team to the 100 run mark in the 14th over.

Wiaan Mulder's arrival gave TSK the late lift they needed to get to a big total. A few big overs at the death - 14 off Andre Russell, 12 off Sunil Narine and 19 off Jason Holder, earned them 67 runs in the death overs as they finished with 173/5.

Adam Milne then cleaned up Andre Fletcher in the second over and the second-wicket pair of Colin Munro and Unmukt Chand dragged the team to 38/1 in six overs. Donovan Ferreira ended Chand's unremarkable stay - 18 off 21 - while Dian Forrester accounted for Matthew Tromp, pushing LA KR to 59/3 in the 11th over. Any shot at keeping the chase alive rested on finding a turnaround immediately. It perhaps may have already been late if a batter of Rovman Powell's capabilities didn't arrive next.

On the second ball he faced, he hit Forrester for a four down to fine leg to get going. The next couple of overs showed why this chase wasn't done yet as both Munro and Powell traded in sixes to pick 12 off Ferreira and 17 off Amshi de Silva. And then came the big turnaround. Powell went 6 6 4 4 against Mulder in a 22-run 14th over that brought their required equation down to 60 off 6 overs. That was four fewer than how much the pair managed in the previous four overs.

Expectedly, they snared it. Abhimanyu Lamba and Amshi conceded 10 each in the next couple of overs to maintain the game on a knife's edge but Powell broke it once more. He targetted Milne in the 17th over, smashing two sixes and three fours in a 26-run over that completed the dramatic turnaround. Powell hit one more six - off Amshi - before being dismissed but that was a breakthrough that came far too late in the chase for TSK to benefit from it. Munro batted through the essay, got to a half-century and watched on in the 19th over when Jason Holder completed the fabulous chase.

Brief scores: Texas Super Kings 173/5 in 20 overs (Saiteja Mukkamalla 80, Wiaan Mulder 29*; Sunil Narine 2-22) lost to Los Angeles Knight Riders 175/4 in 18.4 overs (Rovman Powell 73, Colin Munro 55*) by 6 wickets