Dinesh Karthik, IPL 2019, Kolkata Knight Riders,
Karthik is thinking leader. Photo Credit: BCCI/IPL.

Continuing their fine form with the ball, Kolkata Knight Riders restricted Rajasthan Royals to a modest 160 for 8.

Sent in to bat first, Rajasthan were off to a slow start. Dinesh Karthik‘s decision to start with spinners looked good initially. Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav conceded just 9 runs off the first three overs. Ajinkya Rahane then broke the shackles by hitting four consecutive fours off Sunil Narine. On the other hand, D’Arcy Short was struggling to get going against the spinners, batting at a strike-rate of less than 100. At the end of the powerplay, Rajasthan were 48 for no loss with Rahane scoring 35 of them.

In the very first over after the powerplay, the hosts suffered their first loss as Rahane was run out for 36. Shivam Mavi then put the visitors on top by dismissing in-form Sanju Samson cheaply. The two big wickets helped Knight Riders slow down the scoring rate as Rajasthan huffed and puffed to 71 after 10 overs. Nitish Rana then put Kolkata firmly in command of the proceedings by dismissing Short who was just finding his groove. He scored 44 off 43.

The middle-order batsmen like Ben Stokes and Rahul Tripathi got the starts. However, none of them managed to convert them. The hosts kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. As a result, the Royals’ innings never got the impetus and eventually ended at 160 for 8. Jos Buttler remained till the end, scoring 24 not out to help his side post a competitive total.

 

Here is how Twitter reacted to the innings:

https://twitter.com/Mister_Awesomee/status/986635181980184577

https://twitter.com/beingparanjape/status/986638359354314752

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