Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets on Monday night in IPL 2022.
Rajasthan Royals: 152/5 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 22, Sanju Samson 54, Shimron Hetmyer 27 not out; Tim Southee 2/46)
Kolkata Knight Riders: 158/3 in 19.1 overs (Shreyas Iyer 34, Nitish Rana 48*, Rinku Singh 42*; Kuldeep Sen 1/28, Trent Boult 1/25)
Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh's late flourish has helped Kolkata Knight Riders end their five-match losing streak and defeat Rajasthan Royals by 7 wickets on Monday night in Mumbai.
Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson had smashed a half century and top-scored with 54 as the team posted 152/5 after being put into bat first.
In reply, KKR were in trouble at 32/2 in 5.4 overs when Nitish Rana walked out to bat. He stitched a 60-run stand with skipper Shreyas Iyer before ensuring the team crossed the finish line with a 38-ball 66 run partnership with Rinku Singh.
Rana finished unbeaten on 48 and Rinku on 23.
The win took KKR to the seventh spot in the IPL standings with eight points from 10 matches, hanging on to slim hopes of making it to the play-offs. Rajasthan Royals remained in the third position with 12 points from 10 games, still in a good position to battle it out for a place in the next stage.
Earlier, Rajasthan were put into bat first by Shreyas Iyer and they lost opener Devdutt Padikkal early as he tried to work one pitched around middle stump towards leg and mistimed it. Umesh Yadav had to stretch a bit but he completed the catch on second attempt, off his own bowling.
Jos Buttler, Rajasthan Royals' most successful batter in IPL 2022 so far, got a start but could not capitalise on it as he was out for 22 (off 25 balls), trying to accelerate after the cautious start. Buttler gave Tim Southee the charge only to see Shivam Mavi run in to his right from long-on and complete a superb catch.
Skipper Samson took over the job of scoring runs for his team as he struck some good shots but could not accelerate as wickets continued to tumble at the other end. He struck Shivam Mavi for fours off successive deliveries in the 11th over, scoring the second boundary with a brilliant cut on a delivery that did not offer too much width.
Rajasthan Royals dugout celebrates Sanju Samson's 50 against Kolkata Knight Riders.
(Photo: BCCI)
Samson had meted out the same treatment, but in a bit unconvincing manner, to Umesh Yadav in the fifth over, hitting back-to-back fours -- the first one a streaky shot past the third man and the second touched Southee's finger tips at mid-of on its way to the boundary rope.
The RR skipper ended the power-play with a superb six off Anukul Roy, moving to leg and powering it over extra-cover for half-a-dozen runs. Samson completed his half-century off 38 deliveries, hitting seven fours and one six. This was his 17th fifty in IPL and second this season.
But Rajasthan Royals struggled to maintain a good run-rate as Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers maintained good line and length. Some lusty hitting by Shimron Hetmyer helped them to a modest score in the end.
Hetmyer blasted Southee for back-to-back sixes in the 19th over while the New Zealand pacer also helped them by bowling couple of wides as Rajasthan raised 20 runs from the over.
He remained unbeaten on 27 of 13 deliveries as Rajasthan posted a total that they may find difficult to defend.
IPL points table after Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals
(Gfx: The Quint)
Chasing a target of 153, Kolkata never looked in trouble thanks to the well-controlled innings by skipper Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana, who shared a 60-run partnership for the second wicket off 43 deliveries that kept their hopes alive.
They had got together after KKR had stumbled to 32/2 in the power-play, losing Aaron Finch (4), playing on to get bowled once again, this time off young Kuldeep Sen, and his new partner Baba Indrajith (15 off 16) early.
Iyer and Rana took their time to build the innings, though they managed to keep the run rate in control. Anyway, they didn't had a lot to chase and they managed that by hitting timely fours. Iyer blasted spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for a bit six in the 12th over to bring up fifty of the partnership.
He had started off by hitting Kuldeep Sen for a four off the first ball he faced but later played without any hurry to build a platform from which Rana and Rinku Singh could lead the team to victory.
Rana top-scored for Knight Riders with an unbeaten 48 off 37 deliveries and along with Rinku Singh figured in an unfinished 66-run partnership for the fourth wicket to help Knight Riders romp home to victory with five deliveries to spare.
Rana and Rinku Singh 17 runs off the 19th over bowled by Prasidh Krishna to make things further easier for KKR.
(With inputs from IANS)
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