Kolkata vs Rajasthan Highlights: Yashasvi Jaiswal Masterclass Help Rajasthan To Win Over KKR
Jaiswal scored 98n runs of just 47 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders which helped Rajasthan to win by 9 wickets.
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Kolkata vs Rajasthan Highlights: Yashasvi Jaiswal's scintillating 47-ball 98 and Yuzvendra Chahal's 4/25 propelled Rajasthan Royals to a nine-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders with 41 deliveries to spare. This thwarted Kolkata Knight Riders' chances of advancing to the IPL playoffs. Royals are in third place and KKR are not yet eliminated, but the margin of this victory will undoubtedly impact their net run rate and should be considered.
Royals elected to bowl on a two-paced Eden Gardens pitch, limiting KKR to 149/8 before making a farce of the target. KKR scored 48 runs in an innings that was primarily supported by Venkatesh Iyer's fifty.
In the second innings, however, the pitch appeared to play differently as Jaiswal reached fifty in 13 deliveries. When Royals completed their Powerplay with a score of 78/1, the game was already lost. Jaiswal crushed KKR with a variety of aggressive strokes, closing with 12 fours and five sixes. Sanju Samson was similarly destructive, smashing 48 runs off 29 deliveries after Sunil Narine dropped him off his own bowling when he was on 16.
The writing was on the wall, however, when Royals took advantage of an arid and sluggish Eden Gardens in mid-May to restrict KKR to a sub-par score. Faster Royals bowlers utilized the tennis-ball bounce to either hit the ball short or reduce its velocity, while spinners hung the ball in the air, requiring batters to clear the boundaries.
Trent Boult's three-over spell in which he claimed two wickets for 15 runs was the best possible start for the Royals before the spinners took over. Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin both bowled their allotted overs, conceding 57 runs between them.
Chahal was at his craftiest, weaving a mesmerizing variety of variations on a deceivingly sluggish surface to further confound KKR. Iyer was enticed into a tremendous hoick by a 92 kph wide slider, but he could only spear it to short cover. As well, two types of fuller deliveries continued to tempt the batters: one was hit with spin by Rinku Singh to long-off, while the other was direct and struck Shardul Thakur on his front pad during a sweep. Chahal became the IPL's leading wicket-taker when Nitish Rana stroked a pitched googly to deep backward square, making Chahal the bowler with the most scalps.
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Ashwin was the ideal counterpoint to Chahal's enticing lines, beginning with a two-run over in the Powerplay and concluding with a slightly costly tenth over that gave KKR 18 runs, primarily due to two contrasting sixes from Iyer. The two overs of off-breaks from Joe Root, who has never batted in the IPL and bowled in the middle, conceded just 14 runs and ensured that Boult or KM Asif did not have to return to bowl their final overs.
The fielding of the Royals was also exceptional, dropping no balls and preserving at least five boundary runs. The receptions were also well-timed. Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Nitish Rana had promising beginnings but were unable to convert. Andre Russell did not fire, and Rinku was also restrained. KKR still reached 149 thanks to Iyer's fifty, an innings of two halves in which he scored 11 off the first 20 deliveries and 46 off the next 22 balls. In the end, however, it was insufficient to prevent a soul-crushing defeat.
