Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals were up against each other in the 54th match of the Indian Premier League 2021 in Sharjah. KKR are looking to seal the final berth for the playoffs of the IPL 2021 while RR are almost eliminated for this season.
Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to field first. He named four changes in the playing XI and brought Liam Livingstone, Anuj Rawat, Jaydev Unadkat and Chris Morris in. KKR, on the other hand, replaced Tim Southee with Lockie Ferguson.
Also Read: KKR thrashes SRH and moves closer to playoffs, Twitter reacts
Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer gave Kolkata Knight Riders a solid start and scored 34 runs inside the powerplay. Both batsmen were scoring occasional boundaries and kept a good run rate. Both batsmen were going well and scored 79 runs for the opening wicket.
Gill, however, kept his cool from the other end and scored a fine fifty. He got out after scoring 56 runs in 44 balls. KKR managed to put a good total on the board and finished their innings with 171/4 in 20 overs.
In response, Rajasthan Royals got off to the worst possible start. Yashasvi Jaiswal got out for a duck in the first over. They were 13/4 in 3.4 overs. No RR batsmen applied themselves and threw their wickets and they got reduced to 35/7 in no time. The chase was a distant thing for them from this point.
Rahul Tewatia played few shots towards the end to save the blushes for RR. He scored 44 runs in 36 balls which featured five fours and two sixes. RR got all-out for 85 and lost the game by 86 runs. Shivam Mavi took 4 wickets for 21 runs while Lockie Ferguson bagged three wickets for 18 runs.
Also Read: Shubman Gill takes a brilliant catch to send back Ross Taylor, watch here
With this huge win, KKR are through to the playoffs. If Mumbai Indians want to displace KKR, they need to win their final league game against Sunrisers Hyderabad by a margin of 171 runs if they score 200 runs. If they bat second, they stand eliminated.
See how Twitter reacted to this game;
Landed and found out @KKRiders has made it! Nice.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) October 7, 2021
For Mumbai Indians to have any chance of making it to the Qualifiers, they will have to beat Hyderabad by a margin of at least 171 runs – virtually impossible! So Kolkata It Is @mipaltan @KKRiders
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) October 7, 2021
Karbo larbo jeetbo @KKRiders 💪💪 well done boys.. what a performance
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) October 7, 2021
A COMPLETE performance this from @KKRiders! Brilliant batting, world class bowling and then some outstanding fielding. This victory over @rajasthanroyals will be a massive boost to not only the run rate, but also the confidence of the team. WELL DONE #KKR!
#KKRvRR #IPL2O21 #IPL pic.twitter.com/NJ6l5hmjdP
— MANOJ TIWARY (@tiwarymanoj) October 7, 2021
Superb all round performance by #KKR and terrible one by #RR. Don’t know the mathematical possibility of #MI making it to the play-offs, but must be tending towards zero I would imagine. #KKR’s surge from a near hopeless position after phase 1 is a remarkable story
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) October 7, 2021
#KKR you did it in style! Der aaye per kya durust aaye! Shivam Mavi chose a very important game to show his potential. #KKRvRR #RRvsKKR
— R P Singh रुद्र प्रताप सिंह (@rpsingh) October 7, 2021
This is brilliant cricket from @KKRiders UAE leg has been fruitful for them. #IPL2O21
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) October 7, 2021
What will particularly please @Bazmccullum is that KKR are getting it done with their young Indian talent & without Andre Russell. Such a pleasure to see.
— Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) October 7, 2021
