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The Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants timeline is the IPL’s youngest proper rivalry. LSG arrived in 2022 as an expansion franchise. Nobody quite knew what to make of them. Within weeks, they’d beaten KKR twice in the same season. Then again the following year. By the time 2026 rolled around, the rivalry had produced a Super Over, a 1-run finish, and more last-over drama than most full-series rivalries manage across years.
Quick stats: 8 meetings. LSG 4 wins. KKR 4 wins. Perfectly split, which is basically the problem for both sets of fans.
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants Timeline head-to-head record
| Stat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Total matches | 8 |
| KKR wins | 4 |
| LSG wins | 4 |
| Highest team score | 238/3 (LSG, April 2025) |
| Lowest team score | 101 (KKR, May 2022) |
| Biggest win margin | 98 runs (KKR, May 2024) |
| Closest finish | 1 run (LSG, May 2023) |
| Super Overs | 1 (KKR win, IPL 2026) |
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants timeline (year by year)
KKR vs LSG timeline – IPL 2022
LSG were 4 months old as a franchise when they first played KKR, in Pune, on May 7 2022.
KKR made 101. That’s it. That’s the match. The lowest total in this entire rivalry. LSG chased it down with 76 runs to spare. KL Rahul, calm and composed, didn’t even need to break a sweat.
The second meeting, May 18 in Mumbai, went to the final over. LSG made 210/0 — Quinton de Kock and Manish Pandey putting on an unbroken 210-run opening stand, which is still the highest partnership in this rivalry. KKR chased hard. Made 208/8. Lost by 2 runs.
So in their debut season, LSG played KKR twice and won both. By 75 runs in the first game. By 2 in the second. Both results mattered. LSG made the playoffs. KKR didn’t.
Key turning point (match 1): KKR collapsed in the powerplay and never recovered. Dushmantha Chameera was unplayable.
Key turning point (match 2): Rinku Singh wasn’t yet the finisher he’d become. KKR needed 14 off the last over and came up 2 short.
KKR vs LSG timeline – IPL 2023
One run. One. Ru. N.
May 20, Eden Gardens, playoffs on the line. LSG made 176/8. KKR chased all the way to the final ball needing 2, with Rinku Singh at the crease. He hit it hard but straight to the fielder.
LSG won by 1 run.
The margin matters less than what it meant. LSG confirmed their playoff spot. KKR were already too far gone in the standings to benefit either way, but Eden Gardens fell silent in a way it very rarely does.
Nicholas Pooran top-scored for LSG with 34. For KKR, Rinku made 42 off 28, which was simultaneously brilliant and heartbreaking. The match is remembered for the last ball more than anything that came before it.
This season also showed why the KKR vs LSG rivalry had genuine teeth: LSG’s spin attack (Bishnoi, Gowtham) against KKR’s batting order was a mismatch that KKR’s team management kept failing to solve.
KKR vs LSG timeline – IPL 2024
KKR arrived in 2024 with a completely rebuilt philosophy and a squad that felt different at every level. Shreyas Iyer had returned as captain. Phil Salt opened. And Sunil Narine, always brilliant, somehow found another gear.
Match 1 (April 14, Eden Gardens): KKR won by 8 wickets.
LSG made 161/7. KKR chased it in 15.4 overs. Comfortable doesn’t cover it. This was the first KKR win in this rivalry and it felt like a statement.
Match 2 (May 5, Lucknow): KKR won by 98 runs.
The biggest win margin in the rivalry. KKR posted 235/6 — Narine made 81 off 39 balls at the top of the order, one of the cleanest hitting displays of the whole season. LSG were bundled for 137 in 16.1 overs. Varun Chakaravarthy and Harshit Rana took 3 wickets each.
By this point, KKR’s season was already building toward what would become an IPL title. LSG’s, by contrast, was fragmenting. KL Rahul’s future at the club was already being discussed.
Viral moment: Narine pulling Naveen-ul-Haq over fine leg for six in the second over, then doing it again two balls later.
KKR vs LSG timeline – IPL 2025
The 2025 encounter was the most complex version of this rivalry yet.
New-look LSG, now under Rishabh Pant, came to Eden Gardens on April 8 with genuine ambition. New-look KKR, under Ajinkya Rahane (Shreyas Iyer had moved on), were still figuring out their identity as defending champions.
LSG batted first and posted 238/3. Aiden Markram made 47 at the top, Mitchell Marsh contributed in the middle, and Nicholas Pooran came in and murdered the death bowling. He finished on 87* off 36 balls. KKR needed 239.
They got to 234/7. Rahane was brilliant with 38 off 19. Rinku Singh, again at the end, again trying to be the hero. LSG won by 4 runs.
LSG’s 238/3 is the highest team total in this rivalry. Pooran’s 87* is the highest individual score by an LSG batter against KKR. And yet the match turned not on those numbers but on Ravi Bishnoi’s 3 middle-over overs, where he conceded just 18 runs and took 2 wickets when KKR were trying to accelerate.
Captaincy note: Rahane won the toss and bowled first. In hindsight, Eden Gardens in April in the afternoon is not a pitch you want to field on. The dew didn’t help KKR either.
KKR vs LSG timeline – IPL 2026
Match 38 of IPL 2026. And possibly the most extraordinary game in this entire rivalry.
KKR and LSG finished level at 155 apiece after 20 overs. A Super Over was needed.
The match itself had everything. An ‘obstructing the field’ dismissal for Angkrish Raghuvanshi (the first such dismissal in IPL 2026) turned the game on its head mid-innings when KKR were looking steady. There was controversy, there were reviews, there were long delays.
In the Super Over: Sunil Narine and Rinku Singh batted for KKR. Narine hit 2 sixes. KKR posted 18.
LSG needed 19 to win. They got 12. KKR won the Super Over.
The head-to-head, after this result, stands exactly level: 4-4.
Memorable matches between KKR and LSG
Closest finish: May 2023, Eden Gardens. LSG beat KKR by 1 run. Rinku Singh faced the last ball needing 2. The whole ground held its breath. He couldn’t do it.
Highest chase: April 2024, Eden Gardens. KKR chased 162 in 15.4 overs for an 8-wicket win. So comfortable it barely felt like a chase.
Best bowling spell: Ravi Bishnoi, April 2025. 4 overs, 2 wickets, 18 runs in the middle phase when KKR needed to accelerate. The game was still alive when he came on. It wasn’t when he left.
Highest scoring match: April 2025, Eden Gardens. 238/3 vs 234/7. 472 total runs. Nicholas Pooran was the reason LSG had enough; Ajinkya Rahane’s cameo was the reason KKR nearly pulled it off.
Most dramatic finish: IPL 2026. Super Over. KKR win after an ‘obstructing the field’ dismissal, three reviews, and 4 hours of cricket that somehow ended in a tie.
Read Also : Lucknow Super Giants Vs Chennai Super Kings Timeline
Top performers in KKR vs LSG matches
Most runs in KKR vs LSG matches
| Player | Team | Runs | Strike rate | 50s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicholas Pooran | LSG | 280+ | 178 | 2 |
| Sunil Narine | KKR | 230+ | 195 | 1 |
| Rinku Singh | KKR | 195+ | 152 | 1 |
| KL Rahul | LSG | 185+ | 132 | 1 |
| Ajinkya Rahane | KKR | 130+ | 155 | 1 |
Most wickets in KKR vs LSG rivalry
| Player | Team | Wickets | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varun Chakaravarthy | KKR | 9 | 7.8 |
| Ravi Bishnoi | LSG | 8 | 6.9 |
| Harshit Rana | KKR | 7 | 8.4 |
| Mohsin Khan | LSG | 6 | 8.1 |
Best individual performances
Highest score: Nicholas Pooran, 87* (36 balls) — April 2025, Eden Gardens. Strike rate of 241. KKR had no answer.
Best bowling figures: Ravi Bishnoi, 3/18 — May 2023. The spinner was unreadable under the Eden Gardens lights.
Most match-defining innings: Sunil Narine, 81 (39 balls) — May 2024, Lucknow. The innings that put the game beyond LSG before they’d faced a single ball in reply.
Eden Gardens vs Ekana Stadium records in KKR vs LSG matches
| Metric | Eden Gardens | Ekana Stadium |
|---|---|---|
| Matches played | 5 | 2 |
| KKR wins | 2 | 1 |
| LSG wins | 3 | 1 |
| Avg first innings score | 192 | 199 |
| Win % batting first | 40% | 50% |
| Pitch behaviour | High-scoring, dew factor late | Good carry, slower spinners |
Eden Gardens is where most of the drama has happened. 4 of the 5 closest finishes in the rivalry have been in Kolkata. The ground holds around 66,000, and when KKR are chasing, it gets loud enough that opposition spinners genuinely struggle to hear each other’s signals.
Ekana, in Lucknow, has hosted only 2 games in this rivalry. The pitch there tends to be slightly slower and more favorable to spinners than Eden. KKR’s solitary win in Lucknow was their biggest in the rivalry (98 runs, 2024).
Key rivalry moments between Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow Super Giants
The 1-run loss (2023): The defining image of this rivalry for the first 3 years. Rinku Singh on the last ball, needing 2, getting 1. It built KKR’s eventual hunger and probably accelerated their rebuild.
Captain battles: KL Rahul vs Shreyas Iyer (2024) was the tactical duel the IPL needed. Rahul’s composure against Iyer’s aggression. KKR won both meetings that year.
Rishabh Pant’s arrival at LSG (2025): Changed the tenor of the rivalry. Pant brought chaos to a franchise that had been measured under Rahul. The result: LSG posted 238/3, their highest total in this rivalry, and won by 4 runs.
The 2026 obstructing-the-field controversy: Raghuvanshi’s dismissal sparked a debate that went beyond cricket. The third umpire’s decision was correct under the laws, but the manner of it (a mid-dive deflection off a fielder’s throw) felt like a technicality rather than spirit-of-the-game enforcement. Social media was divided for about 3 days.
The 2026 Super Over: Narine hitting consecutive sixes off the first 2 balls. That kind of coolness under pressure doesn’t come from talent alone. It comes from having been in big moments before and knowing exactly what to do.
KKR vs LSG playing style comparison
Batting approach: KKR bat explosively from the top. Narine opens and takes the powerplay apart. Venkatesh Iyer hits hard through the line. Rinku Singh is arguably the best finisher in the league. They go at 10+ in almost every game, often crashing through or collapsing at the back.
LSG, particularly under Pant, bat more fluidly. Pooran and Pant in the same lineup is a different kind of problem, both capable of 20 runs in an over on any given day. Markram adds solidity at the top before they go aggressive.
Death bowling: KKR have Harshit Rana and Varun Chakaravarthy as a death combination that’s hard to attack. Rana’s yorkers have become increasingly accurate. Chakaravarthy generates awkward angles that batters find hard to hit over long-on.
LSG lean on Bishnoi and left-armer Digvesh Rathi to tie up the middle overs. Their death bowling has been the weaker phase, which KKR have exploited in 2024 and 2026.
Spin attack: Both teams are spin-heavy, which makes the head-to-head battles within a match interesting. Varun Chakaravarthy vs Bishnoi is essentially a private tournament within the match, each testing the other’s batters in different ways.
Powerplay strategy: KKR go hard from ball 1. No settling in. Narine and whoever opens with him are under instruction to attack from the first over.
LSG are slightly more measured, building in the first 4 overs before exploding in overs 5 and 6.
Upcoming KKR vs LSG matches
The second league-stage meeting in IPL 2026 is likely scheduled in the back half of the tournament, with both teams still in playoff contention as of late May 2026. The venue and exact date are subject to the revised IPL 2026 schedule — check the BCCI’s official IPL website for confirmed match timings.
Given both sides are in form and the head-to-head sits at 4-4 after the Super Over result, the next fixture in this Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants timeline could well decide playoff positioning.
Frequently asked questions
Who has won more matches between KKR and LSG?
As of May 2026, the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants head-to-head is level at 4-4. LSG dominated the early years (winning 3 of the first 3 encounters) but KKR equalised across 2024 and 2026.
What is the highest score in KKR vs LSG matches?
LSG’s 238/3 at Eden Gardens in April 2025, powered by Nicholas Pooran’s 87* off 36 balls. LSG won that match by 4 runs, with KKR falling just short on 234/7.
Which player scored most runs in the KKR vs LSG rivalry?
Nicholas Pooran leads the run-scoring charts across the full Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants timeline, with 280+ runs at a strike rate around 178. Sunil Narine is close behind with 230+ runs, but at an even higher strike rate.
Which stadium hosted most KKR vs LSG matches?
Eden Gardens in Kolkata, with 5 matches. The ground’s huge capacity, late dew, and partisan crowd have made it the backdrop for the most memorable moments in this rivalry: the 1-run loss in 2023, the 2024 demolition, the 238/3 in 2025, and the 2026 Super Over.
When did LSG first play against KKR?
May 7, 2022, at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune — the first-ever meeting between the 2 franchises. LSG won by 75 runs. That result set the tone for the first 3 years of the Kolkata Knight Riders vs Lucknow Super Giants timeline, with LSG winning all 3 early encounters before KKR fought back.
