Kolkata Knight Riders hosted Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2018 Eliminator at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday (May 23).
Rajasthan skipper Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to bowl first. KKR rode on their captain Dinesh Karthik’s fifty (52 runs off 38 balls) and Andre Russell’s blazing 25-ball 49 to post 169/7 in 20 overs. Krishnappa Gowtham, Jofra Archer and Ben Laughlin claimed 2 wickets each for the Royals.
In reply, RR got off to a reasonable start with Rahane and Rahul Tripathi putting 47 runs in just 5 overs. After Tripathi’s dismissal on 20, the Rajasthan captain forged a 62-run stand for the second wicket with Sanju Samson.
Rahane was eventually dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav on 46 that led to Heinrich Klaasen’s arrival at the crease. The pressure of upward going run-rate was pretty much evident on Royals batsmen as Samson soon became Piyush Chawla’s victim on 50.
KKR bowlers conceded only 35 runs in the last 5 overs as the Royals fell short of the target by a massive margin of 25 runs. There were three stand-out performers with the ball for Kolkata. While Chawla scalped 2 for 24 in his 4 overs, Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Yadav recorded the figures of 1/28 and 1/18 in their quota of overs respectively.
Twitterati were in awe to see the way Kolkata bowlers pulled things back in the later half of the game.
Here are some of the top tweets:
RR had the game under control for most part but then the young Prasidh Krishna decided to take the game away from them in the final overs. Brilliant Match winning Spell. The @KKRiders have indeed exceeded the expectations today #KKRvRR
— Hemang Badani (@hemangkbadani) May 23, 2018
First 10 overs with d ball RR were outstanding,gave away too many in the next 10.While chasing RR were 87/1 after 10 & it looked like they may get this easily,but @KKRiders were superb to defend this.Prasidh has been mighty impressive & it will be interesting against SRH #KKRvRR
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) May 23, 2018
Rajasthan let slip golden opportunity. Rahane & Samson holing out when asking rate was still around 10 an over were debilitating blows to weak batting side. One of them had to bat through. Clever captaincy by Karthik to have held back spinners. And Prasidha Krishnan is a star!
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 23, 2018
#KKR’s campaign is THE story of the #IPL. Loved the way they’ve fought relentlessly. Will be a tough game day after. Battle amongst the equals. Well played. #KKRHaiTaiyaar #KKRvRR #ApnaTukkaBhiLaga ????????????
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 23, 2018
What a disappointing end this is, wasted to many balls & didn’t take the game on in the middle. That game was there to win & the boys should have got over the line ! Very proud of the entire squad though as they tried their best ! Just hurts as that’s a game we should have won !
— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) May 23, 2018
KKR going through. Eden Gardens going off.… https://t.co/asCseHPM0M
— Michael Slater (@mj_slats) May 23, 2018
The visitors had this match by the scruff of the neck but just didn’t have the batting depth to see it through till the end @rajasthanroyals @KKRiders #KKRvRR
— Gautam Bhimani (@gbhimani) May 23, 2018
Well played @KKRiders
— Brett Lee (@BrettLee_58) May 23, 2018
Massive win lads????????
Congratulations also to @rajasthanroyals for the way you all played throughout the entire @IPL series @darensammy88 @suhailchandhok @StarSportsIndia pic.twitter.com/kx3zG50EsS