Playing at the home ground at Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals could not make the most of the home advantage as they could muster only 160 runs batting first against Kolkata Knight Riders. D’Arcy Short top-scored for the team with 44 runs while Nitish Rana was Kolkata’s most successful bowler with two wickets in 11 runs in his two overs.
Powerplay Overs (1-6) – RR – 48/0
Rajasthan’s innings began with extreme caution as they accrued only 9 runs in the first three overs of spin by Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav. Excited by the control, Karthik brought his best miser in the bowling attack – Sunil Narine. The result was astonishing. Ajinkya Rahane took Narine head on and smashed him for four boundaries in four balls. The mystery bowler conceded 18 in his first over, more than what he had conceded in his full quota so far.
Rahane continued the momentum as he and Short accumulated 21 more runs in the next two overs to end the powerplay with 48 runs. The platform was set to have good middle overs. Rahane was batting 35*(17)
Middle Overs (7-16) – RR – 122/4
The greatest tragedy for RR immediately after the powerplay was Ajinkya Rahane getting out in the 7th over. And it was on the bowling of Nitish Rana. Rahane misplayed the flick and ran out of his crease. Karthik ran across to the square and quickly managed to get his underarm throw back on the stumps. The wicket halted RR’s progress.
Man in a stunning form so far in the tournament, Sanju Samson was dismissed cheaply as he failed to connect the pull shot which fell into the lap of Chawla. D’Arcy Short was now joined by Rahul Tripathi who played a few lusty shots to increase the tempo. By the time death overs approached, RR had lost Short and Tripathi both.
Death Overs (17-20) – RR – 160/8
The greatest hope of Rajasthan, Ben Stokes got out on the first ball of the 17th over bowled by Piyush Chawla, he was expected to hit big. In the next over, K.Gowtham used the long handle and struck Narine for a six. Narine bowled his most expensive spell in the IPL so far as he conceded 48 runs.
Tom Curran broke the momentum with his double-blow to dismiss Gowtham and Gopal. Jos Buttler then hogged the majority of the strike to take RR to a defendable score.
KKR have been set a target of 161 runs to win the match.
