On Wednesday night, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) by seven wickets in the IPL 2018. The victory at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, was achieved on the back of KKR all-round young Nitish Rana. With this win over Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders find themselves on the top of the points table having won three out of five games played in VIVO IPL 2018.
Earlier, KKR won the toss and opting to field against the host, KKR restricted Rajasthan to 160-8 and then chased down the required runs quite handsomely. The wily spin attack of KKR restricted RR to 160 runs for loss of eight wickets. The trio of Piyush Chawla (1/18), Kuldeep Yadav (1/23) and part-timer Nitish Rana (2/11) conceded 52 runs in 10 overs sharing four wickets. KKR's lead-spinner Sunil Narine had an off-day as the Caribbean went wicketless and leaked 48 runs in four overs. Pacer Tom Curran (2/19) chipped in with a couple of wickets towards the death over.
Rajasthan set a target of 161 on a flat track, KKR rolled to victory in 18.5 overs with seven wickets in hand as skipper DK ended the contest with a mammoth six. KKR skipper remained unbeaten on 42 runs with Nitish Rana at the other end on 35 runs. Sunil Narine (35) and Robin Uthappa (48) also made healthy contributions in the chase. Australian opener Chris Lynn was the only batsman to miss out as he was clean bowled for a duck by off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham.
Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 160/8 in 20 overs (D'Arcy Short 44; Nitish Rana 2-11, Tom Curran 2-19) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 163/3 in 18.5 overs (Robin Uthappa 48; Krishnappa Gowtham 2-23) by seven wickets.