Lockie Ferguson
Kolkata Knight Riders took a big step towards making it to the playoffs after beating Rajasthan Royals by a huge margin of 86 runs in the Indian Premier League here on Thursday.
With three play-off spots – Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings and Royals Challengers Bangalore – already sealed, KKR cemented their position for the fourth and final play-off spot, finishing their round with 14 points from 14 matches. -Robin ended the engagement. An impressive net run rate of 0.587.
With 12 points from 13 matches, defending champions Mumbai Indians are still the only team in the race for the play-offs but they will need to register a big win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last game on Friday to remove KKR from fourth place. Effectively, Mumbai needs a miracle to make it to the play-offs ahead of KKR.
Shubman Gill Scored a second successive half-century as KKR registered their highest score this season in this season, posting a competitive total of 171 for four after batting.
Gill (56 off 44) and Venkatesh Iyer (38 off 35) got KKR off to a fine start and added 79 runs for the opening stand.
Rahul Tripathi (21), Dinesh Karthik (14 not out on 11) and captain Eoin Morgan (13 not out on 11) also performed well till the end to take KKR past 170 runs.
RR had a formidable star to chase after they lost their best batsman of the season Yashasvi Jaiswal Shakib Al Hasan on the third ball of the innings
Not only this, captain Sanju Samson got out on the first ball of the next over.
Back in the side after recovering from an injury, Lockie Ferguson struck twice in his first over – first removing Liam Livingstone and then later dismissed young Anuj Rawat with a ball.
Mavi struck twice in the eighth over – upsetting the rhythm of Glenn Phillips and Shivam Dube with his fast pace as RR continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.
Mystery spinner Varun Chakraborty didn’t hold back as he joined the party by dismissing Chris Morris lbw in the next over.
Rahul Tewatia attacked the opposition and smacked Mavi for three boundaries as RR reached 49 for seven in the 10th over.
With no pressure on his back, Tewatia continued his attacking run and smashed Chakraborty over the deep square leg boundary for the first six of the RR innings.
Tewatia scored 44 off 36 balls but it was not enough as KKR bowled out RR for 85.
Mavi did his best IPL figures of 4/21, while Ferguson (3/18) also shone with the ball.
Earlier, KKR scored 50 runs in the eighth over on the back of a brilliant start from Gill and Iyer.
Iyer did not curb his natural instincts and jumped first Jaydev Unadkat Over the deep midwicket boundary and then straight over the bowlers’ heads the two bowlers collected 14 runs in the 10th over as KKR reached 75 for no loss at the halfway mark.
Impressed by Aiyar’s power, Gill rejoined the party and welcomed Rahul Teotia fervently.
But Tewatia had the last laugh as he gave his side a crucial breakthrough when he went through Iyer’s defense between his legs as a left-hander went for an extraordinary reverse sweep.
The RR captain then introduced Phillips into the attack, but the off-spinner went on for 17, though he took the wicket of Nitish Rana in the process.
Rahul Tripathi was lucky to get a respite as he had a full off delivery when Samson had him out Mustafizur Rahman On the last ball of the 13th over.
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