The Kolkata Knight Riders took on the Rajasthan Royals in a much-awaited contest. A top of the table clash which many were looking forward to promised to be an enthralling contest. After clinching 4 wins out of 5 matches, KKR looked to stamp their authority at home and aimed to go top of the table after clinching a win against RR. The fans were delighted to see their favorites in action and looked forward to some exhilarating cricket.
After being put into bat first, KKR openers walked in with a purpose to provide an explosive start. However, KKR lost an early wicket due to some good bowling from RR. Despite a slowish start, Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Sunil Narine started to tee off in the later stages of the powerplay and formed a terrific partnership. Sunil Narine was on a mission to deposit the ball over the fence as he continued to smash the RR bowlers all over the park. He took down RR’s spin twins through the middle overs and reached a colossal century off just 49 balls. His innings of 109 was the hallmark of the KKR innings with all the other batters complimenting him perfectly. KKR ended up with a mammoth 223 total at the end of their innings due an outstanding display of ball-striking from Sunil Narine and all the other batters.
With a big total to defend, the KKR bowlers looked to pick up early wickets and put pressure on the RR batters. Vaibhav Arora drew first blood as he picked up Jaiswal’s wicket as KKR looked to apply the pressure. Wickets kept falling at one end while Jos Buttler held down the other end. Sunil Narine who could do no wrong in the night picked up another crucial 2 wickets to put KKR on top. The KKR bowlers controlled the game for the most part of the innings yet Jos Buttler stayed strong at one end to keep the Royals in the game. The game went down till the last ball yet Buttler with his tremendous century steered RR home as KKR faced a tough loss. The Knights will look to bounce back from this loss and make sure they pick out the positives from this game and come back strong in the next game. Overall, it was a tremendous match on display tonight at the Eden Gardens.
