After a scintillating first 10 days of the 11th edition of Indian Premier League (IPL), it was time for former champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) to clash in the 15th match of the cash-rich tournament.
Both teams were on same points prior to this encounter. However, KKR was higher on the points table courtesy their superior net run-rate but they had played a match more.
Rajasthan was playing in their fortress and Kolkata needed to play out of their skin to come out on top.
Again the captain winning the toss opted to field first. This time it was the Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Dinesh Karthik, who won the toss and put the hosts in.
Ajinkya Rahane began on a positive note and started smashing the KKR bowlers all around the park. Rahane scored 19-ball 38 but his partner D’ Arcy Short found it difficult to get going.
The KKR bowlers came back strongly in the middle overs and restricted the Rajasthan batsmen very well. Sunil Narine went for a bit of tap and ended up conceding 48 runs in his four-over spell.
It was a brilliant spell by part-timer Nitish Rana which brought KKR back into the match. He bagged a couple of wickets for just 11 runs in a couple of overs.
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Rajasthan eventually managed to reach 160 in their allotted 20 overs. Kolkata began in the worst possible manner and lost opener Chris Lynn on the 3rd delivery of the innings.
However, Sunil Narine started the resurrecting job and stitched together a 69-run partnership in quick time.
After Narine’s dismissal, it was a brilliant catch by Ben Stokes at the boundary ropes to dismiss dangerman Robin Uthappa which eventually kept Rajasthan in the game.
Uthappa came dancing down the track and wanted to smash it out of the ground.
However, Ben Stokes stationed at the boundary line completed an amazing catch to leave many in splits.
Watch that sensational catch here:
https://twitter.com/PeshwaBajirao7/status/986657693438959616
