Rajasthan Royals (RR) edged out Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 7 runs in Match 30 of IPL 2022 in a high-scoring thriller on Monday (April 18) at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, on the 14th anniversary of the biggest T20 cricket league in the world.
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bowl first, and RR were provided with a great start of 97 runs by openers Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal, before the latter departed for 24. RR captain Sanju Samson (38) joined Buttler and the duo smashed the KKR bowlers with the Englishman scoring 103 off 61 balls, his second ton of the ongoing tournament, and third overall.
Shimron Hetmyer also hammered 26* in 13 balls as RR set a target of 218 for KKR. Only Sunil Narine, playing his 150th IPL match, with 2/21 could stand up to the challenge of bowling on a flat pitch.
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KKR tried to gamble by sending Narine to open the innings with Aaron Finch, but the West Indian was dismissed run out without facing a ball. Finch (53) then added a fine 107-run partnership with captain Shreyas Iyer (85) to set up a strong foundation for chasing the huge target. Nitish Rana (18) tried his best but his dismissal along with Andre Russell (0) dented the chase, even as Shreyas kept going.
At 178/4 after 16 overs, it seemed like Shreyas would guide his team to a win with 40 to get in four overs but star leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal turned the game on its head, picking up the wickets of Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi, and Pat Cummins in his final over, including his first IPL hat-trick to register his career-best IPL figures of 5/40, also his maiden IPL five-wicket haul.
Watch Chahal's hat-trick here:
Chahal then celebrated the hat-trick with his trademark sitting pose on the ground:
Umesh Yadav (21) tried hard to give KKR some hope but Obed McCoy bowled a fine last over to help RR bowl out KKR for 210, and complete a narrow 7-run win, their fourth of the season to move to second spot on the table.
