The 49th match of the IPL 2018 saw Kolkata Knight Riders play Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens. Both RR and KKR were looking to consolidate their positions in the top half of the points table.
Dinesh Karthik won the toss and decided to bowl first. RR made three changes, bringing in Rahul Tripathi, Ish Sodhi, and Anureet Singh into the team. KKR included Shivam Mavi for injured Piyush Chawla.
RR had a superlative start with 63 runs in first 5 overs, with Tripathi (27 in 15 balls) and Buttler (39 in 22 balls; 5x4s, 2x6s) taking KKR bowlers to task. Mavi gave away 28 runs in an over as Buttler destroyed his bowling. He had given away 29 runs against DD previously in the tournament.
But KKR hit back through Kuldeep Yadav, who ended with 4/20. All of his wickets were that of RR bigwigs, including Buttler, Rahane (11), Stokes (11) and Binny (1). Mavi came back to pick one wicket and Rajasthan Royals collapsed after the opening salvo. Jaydev Unadkat hit 26 off 18 balls, in the end, to take RR to 142 in 19 overs.
Sunil Narine came out and went after Gautam in the first over of KKR innings, taking 21 runs off it. But in the next over, Gautam caught him off Stokes’ bowling. Uthappa was dismissed by Stokes for 4 and then after a short partnership, Rana was found LBW by Sodhi for 21 off 17 balls.
Lynn (45 from 42 balls; 5x4s, 1x6s) and Dinesh Karthik took the score to 114 when Stokes (3/15 in 4 overs) came back to dismiss Lynn. But Dinesh Karthik took the team safely past the winning line.
Rajasthan Royals will rue their batting failure in this game and their next game will be played without Buttler and Stokes in the playing XI.
BRIEF SCORES:
RR 142 (J BUTTLER 39; K YADAV 4/20) lost to KKR144/4 ( C LYNN 45; B STOKES 3/15) by 6 wickets
