IPL 2019: Match 21, RR vs KKR, Review – Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine help the Knights maul the Royals in Jaipur

The Knight Riders seem to be unstoppable at the moment.

Published - 07 Apr 2019, 22:56 IST | Updated - 07 Apr 2019, 22:56 IST

3 Min Read

Although Jaipur is deemed to be a fortress for the Rajasthan Royals, it has not been that way this year. The team has now lost two out of three games this year at this venue. On what seemed to be a tough batting surface for the home team, it turned out to be the opposite when the visitors batted. Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine got the team off to a flyer and made the job easy.

This is the fourth win for the KKR side in this tournament. They have now moved up the points table and sit comfortably at the top position. The home team seemed to have misjudged the pitch or it could be that it got better to bat in the second innings. After observing both the innings, the former case seems to be more likely. Nevertheless, the Royals have got a lot to think now and should analyse this failure.

Steve Smith finally gets back amongst the runs

Even though Dinesh Karthik won the toss, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway. Ajinkya Rahane wanted to bat first and was asked to do exactly that. The skipper got out right in the second over of the day as Prasidh Krishna trapped him plump in front of the stumps. After he fell, Jos Buttler and Steve Smith built up a 72-run partnership.

Jos Buttler took his time initially on what seemed to be a slow pitch. He smashed a six off Harry Gurney’s bowling and tried to repeat the same the next ball. However, he holed out at the deep mid-wicket region and was dismissed for 37. Steve Smith, though, was brilliant on the night. The former Australian skipper finally got back amongst the runs.

In tough conditions, he remained unbeaten on 73 off 59 balls. RR could have propelled their first innings score further. However, Ben Stokes damaged the momentum towards the end. He took 14 balls to score 7 runs and failed to get Smith on strike. Thus, the Royals could only get 139 runs in 20 overs which was way below par for their liking.

The openers do the damage

The Kolkata Knight Riders got off to a flyer in this match. Sunil Narine started attacking right from the first ball. He scored 47 runs from just 25 balls and was assisted by Chris Lynn’s big hitting at the other end. The duo added 91 runs together in just 8.3 overs and completed half the job by then. However, Shreyas Gopal dismissed both of them in consecutive overs. Lynn got out the next ball after he reached his half-century.

It didn’t take too long for Robin Uthappa and Shubman Gill to finish the job for KKR. The Karnataka batsman was all class during his knock. He smashed 26 balls off 16 balls as KKR won the match by 8 wickets and 6.1 overs to spare.