IPL: KKR beat Royals to book a clash with SRH
Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals by 25 runs in the IPL Eliminator. With this victory, they have secured themselves a place in the 'virtual semi-final' where they will face Sunrisers Hyderabad. Batting first, KKR did a brilliant job to reach 169 despite a rocky start and then ensured that Royals could only manage 144/4. Here is the match report.
Russell cameo takes KKR to a defendable total
The Knight Riders were put to bat first by Royals skipper Rahane. They soon found themselves in deep trouble after Krishnappa Gowtham and Shreyas Gopal rocked the top order. KKR were 51 for 4 when they lost Chris Lynn but captain DK (52), Andre Russell (49*) and Gill (28) played some brilliant cricket to take the two-time IPL champions to 169/7.
Royals stumble after a brilliant start
Rajasthan Royals got off to a brilliant start. They had the game in complete control after scoring 90 runs off 11 overs with 9 wickets in hand. But then, KKR's spinners dismissed Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson which put the visitors on the back-foot. Prasidh Krishna then choked Royals with a brilliant spell (4-0-28-1) to ensure they could only reach 144/4.
Ish Sodhi has been one of RR's top performer
Ish Sodhi has been brilliant for the Rajasthan Royals. The spinner conceded just 15 runs in his 4 over-spell at an economy of 3.75. Without Sodhi, Royals' spinners have gone at an economy of 8.3 and conceded a boundary every 5.4 deliveries. With Sodhi, the numbers improve to 6.6 per over as the spinners concede a boundary every 10 balls.
Dinesh Karthik joins the 5,000-run club
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik become seventh Indian cricketer to complete 5,000 runs in T20 cricket. Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir, MS Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan are the other Indians.
