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KKR beat RR by 6 wickets | Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders, Highlights And Cricket Score 49th T20 Match
Indian Premier League, 2018
Date: May 15, 2018 Start Time: 20:00 IST | 14:30 GMT | 20:00 LocalVenue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
A buoyant Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns with a charged up Rajasthan Royals in a battle for survival at the Indian Premier League T20 tournament. Their fate hanging in balance, a loss in the penultimate league round match may virtually sound the death knell for one of the two teams. It's a mad scramble for the two available play-off berths with five teams including KKR and RR, who are tied on 12 points, remaining in the hunt.
To make the competition stiffer, both the teams have picked up late momentum in the business end of the tournament. Down after back-to-back defeats, KKR bounced back with a bang, posting the fourth highest total of the IPL -- 245/6 -- to down Kings XI Punjab by 31 runs in their last match.
From being on the verge of elimination, RR too have returned to the reckoning with a hat-trick of wins, thanks to the imperious form shown by Jos Buttler who was adjudged man-of-the-match in all the three victories.
The RR opener struck an unbeaten 94 to seal an easy seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians last night. This was the English wicketkeeper-batsman's fifth consecutive half-century -- an IPL record jointly held with Virender Sehwag. His scores in the last five innings read 67, 51, 82, 95*, 94* and Buttler along with allrounder Ben Stokes, who has played in different positions in the batting order, will be the two major threats for KKR.
Half of their battle will be won if the Dinesh Karthik-led side can dismiss the English duo cheaply. The skipper will look to go all out with their spin attack to exploit their weakness. That skipper Ajinkya Rahane is in the middle of a lean patch will augur well for the KKR team who will look to conclude their last home match of the round robin league on a high. With the Eden Gardens slated to host Eliminator and Playoff Two, KKR may have a chance to play again at home if they can finish at third or fouth position in the IPL table.
Rahane has 280 runs from 12 innings with a woeful average of 28.00 and it's high time that he returns among runs to give their batting a stability. KKR batting, on the other hand, look a force with the likes of Sunil Narine, Dinesh Karthik and youngster Shubman Gill -- all in fine form.
Narine slammed 75 off 36 balls, while Karthik smashed a 23-ball 50 in their big total in Indore. With his exploits with both bat and ball, Narine has emerged as the most valuable player for KKR and the Trinidadian will once again look to play a key role.
Narine's battle with Buttler will be one of the key contests of the game.
Skipper Karthik has quietly done his job in the batting and averages a healthy 46.37 (371 runs) and he too will eye a good show with the bat. Nothing much separates the teams in terms of head to head (7-7) count and it seems another mouth-watering contest might be on the cards.
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Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders Highlights And Cricket Score 49th Match - T20 Summary
That's it then from this. Kolkata win and stay third on the table, whereas Rajasthan too remain fourth. But, they lose Stokes and Buttler for the remainder of the campaign as the Englishmen depart for national duty. Would be interesting to see how they adapt without them. Anyway, on 16th of May, Mumbai host Punjab at 2000 local (1430 GMT). Another important battle, one you don't want to miss. Tune in for that. Cheers!
Kuldeep Yadav is announced as the Man of the Match for this game. His outstanding 4-fer, which included the likes of Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, was instrumental in inflicting a Rajasthan collapse.
Rajasthan were never really in this contest to be fair. A big question they'd have on their minds is where was the real Ben Stokes all this while, because he was superb tonight. Was the pick of the Rajasthan bowlers as he scalped 3 to his name and was quite economical too. Ish Sodhi contributed too, but the others couldn't apply as much pressure and that became their undoing. Earlier in the evening, Jos Buttler and Rahul Tripathi took the visitors off to a flying start, but Kuldeep Yadav's impressive 4-fer dented their innings and eventually, restricted them to a total which wasn't enough.
A crucial win for the home side. The performance tonight was clinical, one which it has needed for quite some time now. The target wasn't a big one. With 143 to chase, Narine did some early damage but then he and Uthappa departed early. The hosts recovered well with Lynn and Rana shoring things up. The wickets came at timely intervals, but Lynn held one end up. He then formed another partnership with Karthik and that more or less sealed the deal. Russell joined in and with his skipper, saw Kolkata across the line with two overs to spare.
Jofra Archer to Dinesh Karthik. SIX! There are the winning runs! DK finishes things off in style. Back of a length on middle and off, the Kolkata skipper stays back and heaves it across the line. Clears wide long on and sends it into the stands. KOLKATA WIN BY 6 WICKETS!
Jofra Archer to Dinesh Karthik. FOUR! That's a boundary. Length ball swinging away around off, Karthik tries to drive it on the up and gets an edge down to third man. Gowtham looks to stop it with a dive but he touches the rope as he does so.
Jofra Archer to Dinesh Karthik. Played to mid-wicket region by the batsman.
Jofra Archer to Andre Russell. Full toss on middle, hit to long on for a single.
Jofra Archer to Andre Russell. FOUR! Overpitched and Dre Rus puts this away. Outside off, the big man stays leg side and crashes it through the left of the mid off fielder. No stopping that, it wins the race to the fence.
Jofra Archer to Dinesh Karthik. Back of a length quite straight in line, Dinesh pulls it through backward square leg for a single.
Jaydev Unadkat to Dinesh Karthik. Angling in at first and then straightening up a touch, this time DK manages to work it to third man. Single taken and he'll retain strike.
Jaydev Unadkat to Dinesh Karthik. Looks to guide to third man once more, is beaten yet again.
Jaydev Unadkat to Dinesh Karthik. Beaten! Angling in from around off, Karthik hangs his bat out and fails to make contact.
Jaydev Unadkat to Dinesh Karthik. FOUR! Deft from the skipper. Plays this really late. Waits for the length ball to come to him before opening the face and running it past Jos Buttler, to the third man boundary.
Jaydev Unadkat to Andre Russell. Angling in, takes the inside edge of Russell's bat before thudding into the pads. A quick single is stolen.
Jaydev Unadkat to Andre Russell. FOUR! Shortish in length outside off, Russell wastes no time in going after Jaydev as he carves this over backward point. The umpire wants to check whether it bounced inside the rope or not, and replays show it did. So a boundary. 20 needed in 23.