The Andre Russell his fans were looking for, showed up on Monday night to keep Kolkata Knight Riders in the hunt for a playoff berth. The burly Jamaican, dogged by below par performances for much of IPL-16, lit up the Eden Gardens as he muscled three sixes in the 19th over to pave the way for KKR’s five-wicket victory over Punjab Kings.  

“Honestly, I was just thinking about getting three boundaries from that over. I was trying to make sure that we go into the last over with the least runs required as Arshdeep [Singh] is a very good death bowler and two-three dot balls can change the game. Six off six was ideal for us in the last over,” Russell elaborated on his big bat-slapping celebrations after square-cutting Sam Curran for his third six.