IPL 2021: Match 18, RR vs KKR – Who Said What

The 18^th match of the Indian Premier League 2021 saw action between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders. While both teams were looking out desperately for two points, it was RR who got it by winning the game by six wickets. After being invited to bat first, KKR displayed a below-average show throughout their order and could post only 133 runs on the board. Rahul Tripathi top-scored for them as he played a knock of 36 runs.

Cameos from Nitish Rana (22) and Dinesh Karthik (25) meant that KKR were able to cross the 130-run mark on the board. Chris Morris turned out to be the man with golden arm for RR as he picked four wickets while conceding at 5.80. Due to his classy bowling, Morris was ultimately declared as the player of the match for the night.

Sanju Samson stands up for RR

While running after the target, even RR had an ordinary start but skipper Sanju Samson (42*) and little contributions from other batters made sure that they had a victory on their side. Shivam Mavi maintained the best economy (4.80) for KKR while Varun Chakravarthy had two wickets under his belt. However, a small target made win easy for the RR in the end.

Losing skipper, Eoin Morgan said:

 The batting let us down. We lacked a lot of intent throughout the whole innings. We were behind the game right from the get-go. Didn’t put the bowlers under enough pressure. RR adapted to the pitch much better. We were probably 40 short which is a lot in a T20 game. The wicket today wasn’t as good as it has been here at the Wankhede and that was a challenge in itself. Every time we tried taking an attacking option, we lost a wicket. Left us a lot to do at the back end, which we didn’t obviously do. Clearer the mind, the easier it is (to play with intent). We want guys to play free-flowing cricket. It wasn’t there today unfortunately.

Winning skipper, Sanju Samson said:

Our bowlers have been doing really well for the last 4-5 matches. There are many options for me to juggle around. Really enjoy captaining them. You could see in his eyes he wanted the competition. He wanted to get the big batsmen out (Morris). Situation of the match demands the way I play. THat’s what I’ve learnt from previous years. Even if you bat and score a quick fifty you feel bad if the team doesn’t win. Sakariya is a very different kind of person. Very happy going, very chilled out. Same person inside and outside the ground. Hopefully he will win us more matches in the future. Need to chill down a bit. Have been playing continuous matches from last week. Will take a day off and plan for the next game.

Player of the match, Chris Morris said:

ust a clear mind (what worked for him). In the previous game with those guys going as well as they were, the mind gets cluttered. Today wasn’t the easiest wicket to bat on as you saw in both innings. But to keep it as simple as possible with the odd change of pace. Just my turn to do well today I think. Obviously those guys are massive losses. We’ve got the right personnel in place. We have to find a way to lift ourselves. Have to almost find a motivation and our motivation as a team is that there’s a lot of suffering going on. We’re privilged to do what we’re doing and we’ve got to keep people smiling. Had a lot of fun today on the field. I said to Miller it’s the most fun 7 overs I’ve ever had in my career. The conditions always change, they’re always diffciult against Dre Russ. Experience of playing against him has helped over the years.