IPL 2018: Eliminator, KKR vs RR, Review - Knight Riders end the Royals' campaign with a 25-run victory

Well, it took a while for everyone to realise that one of the most crucial games in the Indian Premier League (IPL) was going to be played after AB de Villiers‘ decision to retire from International cricket had shocked them. The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) sensationally managed to pip the Rajasthan Royals out of the tournament in a tense game. It was a professional performance from them after being put under the lid by the visitors at the start of the game. However, it was a comfortable win by 25 runs in the end as the journey continues for KKR.

Ajinkya Rahane and Co. were left wondering what went wrong for them in the end and the season ended for them prematurely. They were in the drivers’ seat for most parts of the chase only to botch it up at the death as they failed to find boundaries regularly.

Earlier, the Royals won the toss and it was a no-brainer for them to bowl first which has been the trend this season. Both the sides went in with an unchanged side for the game as they had won their respective previous encounters to qualify for the playoffs. The jam-packed crowd of the Eden Gardens was expecting a special performance from their Knight Riders. But they witnessed a reckless show from their top order.

Royal start for the visitors

Sunil Narine started with a bang by smashing the first ball of Krishnappa Gowtham to four but the offie came back stunningly to get the priced scalp off the very next delivery. The bowler anticipated the charge from Narine and flighted the ball nicely to keep it a little shorter in length only to zip the ball past his edge. Heinrich Klaasen did the remaining job then as the hosts were rocked early. Soon Robin Uthappa was back into the hut in the third over by chipping the straight back to the same bowler.

Unfortunately for KKR, the slide continued with Nitish Rana playing a needless shot in search for runs and lobbed the ball straight to mid-on to leave his side reeling at 24/3 in the fourth over. The onus was now on Chris Lynn and the skipper Dinesh Karthik to resurrect the innings even as the former whacked a few deliveries to the boundary. But even he was sent back by the hero of the last match Shreyas Gopal and the team was in huge trouble at 51/4 after 8 overs.

Karthik leads the way

But Karthik got his eye in and played a captain’s knock to bring back his team on track. It was his urgency in the middle which kept the scoreboard moving and found an able partner in Shubman Gill who also played well to tonk the ball a long way. However, he was undone by a short ball from Archer which brought Andre Russell to the crease and the whole complexion of the game changed. He put an exhibition of sheer power and disturbed the lines and lengths of the bowlers.

Whatever they tried against him went out of the ground as the final push from KKR propelled them to a total of 169 after their 20 overs. While Russell remained unbeaten on 49 off just 25 balls, Karthik played superbly for his 52-run knock before being dismissed in the 18th over.

Nervy chase

Finally, for the Royals, Ajinkya Rahane came out to open the innings along with Rahul Tripathi and both started in spanking fashion for them. While the former was, as usual, classy in his stroke-making, the youngster thumped their ace bowler Narine in his very first over of the spell to keep his side ahead in the chase. They managed to add 47 runs together before Piyush Chawla scalped Tripathi in the sixth over with a splendid one-handed catch off his own bowling.

But then Sanju Samson came out and batted beautifully using his feet nicely against the spinners even as Rahane played second fiddle to him which he normally does. While they stitched a stand of 62 runs, the duo strangely never tried to up the ante especially against the spinners. The dot balls piled up which put the immense the pressure and brought the false shot from Rahane first and then from Samson who scored a 50 but failed to finish the job for his team.

The bowlers were excellent with their lines and didn’t concede any boundary at the crucial stages and the game which looked in the grasp of the Royals slipped. The youngster Prasidh Krishna kept his cool and bowled a game-changing 18th over to concede only 3 runs and the Royals were left hapless with their own strategy to send Stuart Binny. He played three dot balls and was dismissed off the last over to leave his team to get 40 runs off last 2 overs.

It was very tough for them with the way Russell was bowling who just went for 6 runs as the likes of Klaasen and Gowtham could never get under any delivery to score a boundary. It was off the final ball when the latter found one finally to end the proceedings as the KKR sealed the game by 25 runs easily in the end. The credit has to go to their bowlers who bowled exceptionally well in the second half of the chase and made it immensely tough for the batsmen to score runs.

The Royals are now knocked out of the tournament and the Knight Riders will now host the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the same venue.

Brief Scores

Kolkata Knight Riders 169/7 after 20 overs (D Karthik 52, A Russell 49*; K Gowtham 2/15, J Archer 2/33)

Rajasthan Royals 144/4 after 20 overs (S Samson 50, A Rahane 46; P Chawla 2/24, K Yadav 1/18)

Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 25 runs

Man of the Match: Andre Russell