Spinners Anukul and Naren restrict Royals to 152 before Shreyas, Rana and Rinku chase down
Spinners Anukul and Naren restrict Royals to 152 before Shreyas, Rana and Rinku chase down
The Kolkata Knight Riders spinner proved too cunning for the Rajasthan Royals’ batsmen to lead the team to a seven-wicket victory on their return to the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
All-rounder Anukul Roy shone with the ball in his first outing in purple-and-gold to finish with figures of 4-0-28-1 as KKR got their campaign back on track after five straight losses.
miserly
Sunil Narine was as impressive as ever – even though he was not on the field – conceding just 19 runs.
After Shreyas Iyer’s men elected to bowl, Umesh Yadav provided a breakthrough with a blinder off his own ball to send Devdutt Padikkal back into the dugout.
Jos Buttler fought against Naren. With skipper Sanju Samson (54, 49b, 7×4, 1×6), the English opener only managed to take the Royals to 38 in the powerplay.
big fish trap
Tim Southee caught a big fish in the ninth over. Butler, batted flat to break the chains, leaps to Shivam Mavi at long-on.
Karun Nair then fell to Anukul, who cleverly pulled his length back. Riyan Parag also took a long walk shortly after.
Meanwhile, Samson smashes a half-century and whispers before sweeping a full-length delivery to deep midwicket.
Shimron Hetmyer (27, 13b, 1×4, 2×6) breathed some much-needed life into the innings as 30 runs were scored in the last two overs.
Chasing 153 runs, Knight Riders openers Aaron Finch and B Inderjit did not last long.
Finch dragged a back-of-a-length delivery from Kuldeep Sen to the stumps, while Indrajeet missed R Ashwin at fine leg.
Knight Riders soon found themselves in a familiar position with 32 for two in six overs.
spin pair
The Royals had two of the three highest wicket-takers against the Knight Riders – Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Both tried to stop the flow of runs further. But Shreyas (34, 32B, 3×4, 1×6) and Nitish Rana (48 no, 37B, 3×4, 2×6) kept the scoreboard ticking.
Rana, who hasn’t been dismissed by Ashwin in the IPL, hit the off-spinner for two boundaries and a six in the 11th over.
The 60-run stand off 43 balls came to an end when Samson confidently went for a referral after a wide call.
Call of UltraEdge
Although it looked like Shreyas had played and missed, UltraEdge suggested otherwise.
Rinku Singh (42, 23B, 6×4, 1×6), who went on to score 92 for three in 12.5 overs, was in fine touch.
Backed by Rana – his contribution was only 17 in the 66-run stand – the target never seemed that big.