During the Eliminator of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) at Kolkata, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals by 25 runs to qualify for the second qualifier.
After Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and put the home team in to bat, Kolkata Knight Riders scored 169-7 in their allotted quota of 20 overs. The Knight Riders had lost three wickets in the powerplay, which had put them in a spot of bother. At one point in time, it appeared that they would end up scoring a below par total.
However, Dinesh Karthik’s 16th IPL half-century came in a situation where his team desperately needed a captain’s knock. With bowling figures of 3-0-15-2, Krishnappa Gowtham was the pick of the Rajasthan Royals’ bowlers. Jofra Archer and Ben Laughlin also picked up a couple of wickets each.
In the second innings, Rajasthan Royals looked solid in their reply before Tripathi got out. Before getting out, he had unsettled Narine, who was introduced into the attack as the second-change bowler in the fifth over. Sanju Samson, who came in to bat at No. 3, stitched a 62-run stand for the second wicket with Rahane. At that point in time, the Royals appeared certain to win because they were ahead of the required run rate at the halfway mark.
Kolkata Knight Riders’ wrist-spinners in Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav restricted the opposition batsmen to bring their team back into the contest. The run-flow dried up which saw an increase in the required run rate.
What came as a turning point in the match was the dismissal of Rahane. It happened on the first delivery of the 15th over when Rahane played a sweep shot without judging the pace of the ball. The ball lobbed off the toe end of his bat, going into the hands of the bowler. Rahane ended up scoring 46 (41) with the help of four fours and a six over the point boundary.
A set batsman and the captain of the team was expected to steer his team in the chase. Post his dismissal, things fell flat for the Royals to the extent that only three fours were scored in the last six overs. Rajasthan ended up scoring 144-4 in 20 overs.
