Match overview
Lucknow Super Giants beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 4 runs at Eden Gardens on 8 April 2025, in one of the IPL's closest finishes of the season. LSG posted 238/3 from their 20 overs, a total built on a solid powerplay foundation of 59/0 and a dominant middle phase of 111/1. KKR responded with extraordinary intent, blasting 90/1 in their powerplay alone, but four wickets fell through overs 7 to 16 and the chase stalled. A death-overs rally of 61 runs took KKR agonisingly close before LSG's bowlers closed it out. Nicolas Pooran, whose batting in the LSG innings proved the difference, was named Player of the Match.
Kolkata had won the toss and chosen to field, a call that looked reasonable at the time given Eden Gardens' trends, but LSG's batters turned the surface into something approaching a batters' paradise. The 238-run target was 52 runs above the venue's average first-innings score of 186, and it proved just enough.
Venue and conditions
Eden Gardens has hosted 171 T20 matches and the numbers reveal a venue that favours the side batting second in normal circumstances. The average first-innings score sits at 186 and the average second-innings score at 170, with chasing sides succeeding 53 per cent of the time. Teams winning the toss have opted to field on 58 per cent of occasions, which is why KKR's decision raised few eyebrows before a ball was bowled.
The powerplay here averages 44 runs. KKR's 90/1 in the power six was, by those standards, an exceptional start to a chase, suggesting conditions were good for strokeplay throughout the evening. Death-over scoring averages 38 runs at the venue; both sides exceeded that figure in this match, pointing to a flat pitch and dew that likely assisted the chasing side's batters without making a decisive difference in the end.
Phase-split data from the LSG innings tells a clear story. The middle overs (7–15) were where the match was really won: 111 runs and only one wicket meant KKR's spinners and medium-pacers couldn't apply the brakes. For a side chasing 239, losing four wickets in the equivalent phase of their innings was a deficit too large to claw back.
How to watch
IPL 2025 is broadcast live in the UK on Sky Sports Cricket, with streaming available through Sky Go and NOW TV for subscribers. Evening matches in India typically start at 19:30 IST, which translates to approximately 15:00 BST during the early-season window before British Summer Time shifts the gap. Sky's coverage usually begins 15 to 20 minutes before the first ball with pre-match analysis and toss coverage.
Recent form
Lucknow Super Giants came into this match with a mixed recent record: wins over Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2025 either side of defeats to Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals. The win here moves them back towards the positive end of that sequence and will have done their net run rate no harm given the high-scoring nature of the contest.
Kolkata Knight Riders had themselves shown inconsistency in 2025, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals but losing to Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Their powerplay batting has been a strength across those matches and that carried into this game. The concern for KKR will be those four middle-overs wickets: it is the phase where they have occasionally buckled under pressure, and the 4-run defeat will sting given how well they had set themselves up through six overs. Both sides are next in action in the IPL group stage, where every result carries increasing weight as the competition moves towards the knockout phase.
