Dubai: In a do or die clash on Sunday evening, Kolkata Knight Riders got a scare as they lost batsman Nitish Rana in the second delivery of the match as Jofra Archer got him caught by wicket-keeper Sanju Samson. Rana has gone for a review but UltraEdge showed a tiny spike.
Put in to bat by Rajasthan Royals here at the Dubai International Stadium, KKR, however, recovered from the early assault as Rahul Tripathi (39 off 34 balls) walked in to build a 72-run partnership in 8.3 overs for the second wicket with opening batsman Shubman Gill (36 off 24 balls). Their hard work was ably supported by Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell as KKR post 191 for 7 in 20 overs.
In the ninth over, KKR had to deal with a double whammy inflicted by Rahul Tewatia who first bamboozled Gill and soon reduced KKR to 74 for 3 in a span of two balls by removing Sunil Narine, who offered a catch to Ben Stokes for nought.
Tewatia struck again in the 13th over when he bamboozled Dinesh Karthik for a duck. Earlier in the final delivery of the 12th over, Shreyas Gopal cut short Tripathi's promising knock, who after getting off to a good start couldn't capitalise on it as he was caught by Robin Uthappa.
With KKR were reeling at 99 for 5, a partnership was need of the time. Captain Eoin Morgan (68 off 35 not out) has borne the responsibility to rebuild the innings with Andre Russell by his side.
Displaying his destructive self, Morgan played a gutsy knock that contained five fours and six sixes. He also shared a 45-run seventh-wicket partnership with Andre Russell (25 off 11). Russell, for the first time in 2020 IPL, was seen in his best but just for a while only. In his brief stay at the crease, he hit three sixes, two off Kartik Tyagi in the 16th over, to shift the momentum of KKR's innings.
However, in that very over he fell to a trap that was well set by Tyagi. After getting hit for a six in the second on the off stump, Taygi bowled on the far off and got the result as Russell applied the same approach but fell short of the fence and got caught by substitute fielder Miller.
After his dismissal, Pat Cummins (15 off 10) and Morgan helped KKR set a mammoth 192 runs target for RR. Tewatia took three wickets and Tyagi got two.
Whoever win today, will qualify for the playoffs.
