Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 47th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday to end their five-match losing streak.
Having won the toss, KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer decided to put RR to bat first as his team reeled from the effects of five successive defeats.
Jos Buttler, who has been in fine form in this tournament having scored three centuries so far and holding the orange cap for most runs scored, was sent home quickly for 22 runs by KKR’s Tim Southee.
RR captain Sanju Samson batted well to get to his half century, scoring 54 runs. He was dismissed by Shivam Mavi. Powered by 27 runs from Shimron Hetmyer and 19 from Riyan Parag, RR reached a total of 152 for the loss of five wickets in their 20 overs.
For KKR, Southee was expensive, giving away 46 runs in his four overs, but also managed to get two wickets. Apart from that, Shivam Mavi, Umesh Yadav and Anukul Roy managed to pick a wicket each.
Out to bat, KKR, who have had a tough time after starting brightly in the tournament, lost opener Aaron Finch quickly. He was dismissed for just 4 runs by Kuldeep Sen.
Strike partner Baba Indrajith tried to give a good start to the team and was later sent packing, having scored 15 runs. KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer played another good knock, scoring 34 runs before departing, with the team on 92 runs at the loss of three wickets.
From there, KKR were steered towards victory by an excellent knock by Nitish Rana and supported very well by Rinku Singh. Both remained unbeaten, scoring 48 and 42 respectively to guide the team to a win over RR by seven wickets with five balls left.
RR’s bowling unit particularly failed to impress with Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Sen sharing a wicket a piece. Spinners Yuzvendra Chahal, holder of the purple cap for most wickets, and Ravichandran Ashwin could not get a wicket in the match.
