8:57pm Back-to-back belligerent team innings for the Knight Riders. This is the second time they have crossed 200 in succession, and this was built on Russell's knock. Having come in at three, he took his time but opened up his shoulders as the back end of the middle overs dawned. He found support through Badar and Powell, and that has propelled LAKR to a very healthy total.

The Orcas will feel they could have kept them down to a lower total, especially after reducing them to 66-3 after 11 overs. But they perhaps front-loaded their bowlers, which left Jasdeep and the inexperienced Ayan to bowl at the death. Raza's decision to not bowl himself and relieve his other bowlers was also perplexing. They will, however, take heart from their chase yesterday and from the fact that this pitch, as the LAKR innings went on, did seem to get better for batting. Join us in a bit for the second innings!

Harmeet Singh: (On not bowling at all yesterday) Yesterday Pooran was going great guns and it was a team decision. I backed my captain. Today, he asked me to open the bowling and I enjoyed it. This is a newish role for me this season and so far, so good. In the first half, there was a bit of grip. As the sun went down, it started to slide on. Even the slower ones from the pacers were coming on. Hopefully that is good for us and we get a good start in the powerplay. Under lights, it gets better and hopefully it does not break and stays flat, and we are able to do what we did yesterday.

Mustafa Moudi : "Happy to see Muscle Russell back in Form. Hope LAKR let him bat at No.3 and Russell keeps doing this in the rest of the season !!"