The contest between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders is on and it has gotten all of us excited! Kolkata won the toss and elected to field first.
Rajasthan batting first has scored a fighting 152 for 5 in the first innings as they have given a target of 153 for KKR to chase for their 4th win of the tournament.
RR get 30 off the last two overs but ended up just with a score of 152 which makes us think how bad the situation looked before these two overs. Buttler was oddly muted in the start, as Padikkal suffered yet another defeat. Samson entered the room and was the one who wanted to go for broke. Buttler was stopped by a good catch, and Samson then injured his back, causing him agony and limiting his mobility and ability to go big. Before holing out, he played one of his slowest IPL innings to reach his fifty. Hetmyer looted runs to gain RR above 150 in the end.
The 17th over was bowled by Southee who gave 7 runs and also took the wicket of Riyan Parag on the last ball of the over. Shivam Mavi went on to take the wicket to the next ball, i.e., the first ball of the 18th over. What happened in the 19th over must be credited to Hetmyer who showed no mercy to the good line and length of Southee and hit him for 20 runs!!! Shivam Mavi continued his spell, bowling the last over of the innings from which he conceded another 10 runs.
The highest partnership of the innings was between Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler which was a slow 48. The partnership between Samson and Parag and Hetmeyer and Ashwin were as crucial.
Rajasthan will have to fight tooth and nail to stay in contention. Kudos to KKR bowlers for restricting a batting lineup like Rajasthan for just 152 on a pitch like Wankhede.
The run rate at the end of 20 overs 7.60. Sanju Samson scored the highest score of 54 runs hitting 1 six and 7 fours at the strike rate of 110.20.
