Kolkata Knight Riders scored a clinical victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata to surge ahead in the playoffs race. RR was asked to bat first and failed to muster a huge score. After a good start they faltered and after Buttler’s fall, they went running headless. In the end, Kolkata managed to win by 6 wickets.

The turning point of the match was definitely Jos Buttler’s wicket. he was the batsman who was winning the matches for Rajasthan. He had scored five consecutive fifties previously which is a joint-IPL record. He had to perform with other batsmen struggling severely for runs.

The start tonight from RR was quite promising. They once again changed their opening combination and brought Rahul Tripathi in the team. The start was quiet as they scored only two runs in the first over bowled by Mavi. Tripathi then snatched the initiative in the next over.

Taking the brunt on Prasidh Krishna, Rahul collected 18 runs from the last four balls of his 2nd over. Next over was handed back to Shivam Mavi. Jos Buttler attacked him in his own way and robbed the youngster for 28 runs. RR stood at 49/0 in three overs.

Soon Rahul Tripathi got out and the first reduction in the speed happened. Ajinkya Rahane failed to keep up with the rate and was out bowled. Kuldeep Yadav took another scalp, big one this time as he dismissed Jos Buttler and this was really the dead end for RR.

After that, they only managed to add 57 runs and lost seven more wickets. The low total of 142 was never going to enough against KKR unless they lost 3/1 or such. In the end, they won the match easily by six wickets.