Rajasthan Royals pulled off a stunning victory against the Kolkata Knight Riders to register their fourth victory of the ongoing Indian Premier League season. The win puts the Royals in second place, a position they occupied previously in the season as well.
Rajasthan’s batting was spectacular, with the reliable Jos Buttler scoring yet another outstanding century, scoring an effortless 103 in just 61 deliveries, as he launched a targeted attack against the Knight Riders bowling, targeting the inexperienced bowlers in particular, something that he has done to perfection in this edition of the IPL.
Sanju Samson and Shimron Hetmyer also contributed with valuable cameos, before the Knight Riders, led by captain Shreyas Iyer and Aaron Finch, threatened to eclipse the 218-run target quite comfortably. However, IPL veteran Yuzvendra Chahal picked up a clutch hat-trick in the deciding moments of the chase to ensure that his side walked away with a crucial win.
Iyer won the toss and decided to put the Royals into bat. Rajasthan started off well, with the Buttler making full use of the powerplay. The Englishman took advantage of pacer Umesh Yadav’s pace, as the Royals raced to 60/0 in the powerplay. Devdutt Padikkal, who was looking good during the powerplay, was playing second fiddle to Buttler all along. However, he could not make good use of the start, as he was castled by the wily Sunil Narine.
Samson joined Buttler at the crease and was looking in great touch. The former’s timing was perfect as he scored at a blistering rate, allowing the latter to take a breather. The duo continued the onslaught up until the 15th over, as the England international was nearing a fantastic century, and the Rajasthan scorecard looked set to cross the 220-mark.
Samson was dismissed shortly after, and so was Buttler, who brought up his hundred with a humongous six off Pat Cummins. Hetmyer showed his class once again, finishing RR innings in ferocious fashion to take them to a daunting 217.
KKR had an excellent start to their innings despite an early mix-up sent Narine back to the pavilion without facing a ball. Finch looked in awesome form, and Iyer was in the mood from the very beginning, as the two maintained a high scoring rate for KKR.
The duo put up 107 in just 53 balls, and with the team off to a solid start, it looked like the target was well within their reach. Finch brought up his fifty in just 26 balls, setting a solid platform for the chase, before he was dismissed by paceman Prasidh Krishna.
There were a few relatively quiet overs for the next few minutes as Iyer wasn’t able to score as freely. Nitish Rana was flirting with danger far too many times, and despite the risk paying off a couple of times, the left-hander had to walk back for just 18, after slog-sweeping a Chahal delivery straight to Buttler.
Andre Russell went back as quickly as he came in, as a jaffa from Ravi Ashwin spelt the end for the mighty Caribbean. Iyer, who was nearing a century, was not getting any support from the other end, with wickets falling like ninepins.
With the game hanging in the balance, the 17th over from Yuzvendra Chahal changed everything as he produced a magnificent over, which yielded four wickets, and just two runs, including a wonderful hat-trick, to completely take the game away from KKR. Y
Yadav, however, was not ready to give up just yet, scoring two maximums and a boundary off Trent Boult to keep KKR in the game. Nevertheless, his efforts were not enough to rescue his side, as the Royals eventually wrapped up a seven-run victory, with Obed McCoy claiming two wickets in the final over of the innings.
Brief scores
Rajasthan Royals 217/5 in 20 overs (Buttler 103, Samson 38; Narine 2/21) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 210 all out in 19.4 overs (Iyer 85, Finch 58; Chahal 5/40) by seven runs.
