Rajasthan Royals vs Kolkata Knight Riders | Match 30

[Addicted]

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Match 30, April 18 2022, Monday - 07:30 PM (IST)

Rajasthan Royals Vs Kolkata Knight Riders

Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

Match Info
Match	RR vs KKR, 30th Match, Indian Premier League 2022
Date	Monday, April 18, 2022
Time	7:30 PM
Venue	Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

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[Addicted]

The overview:

Coming from two comprehensive defeats, Kolkata Knight Riders are desperately seeking an about-face when they take on the Rajasthan Royals at the Brabourne Stadium. That it's at a venue that they've never won an IPL match before is something they wouldn't want to lend focus to, with their opponents having won 2 and lost as many in 4 games.

The dearth of runs in Venkatesh Iyer's kitty this season has hurt KKR, with their highest opening partnership in the season worth 43 against Chennai Super Kings in their tournament opener. Ever since, it hasn't gone past 21. Venkatesh has 103 runs in 5 innings at 20.60, leaving much desired from the opener. The middle-order too hasn't found too many runs, barring Andre Russell, who is currently the top-scorer for KKR with 179 runs from six matches and has also returned five wickets.

While Sunil Narine has been instrumental in confining oppositions, Chakravarthy has gone for plenty with both spinners picking just 4 wickets each. Umesh has been a revelation in the powerplay this season, with six wickets in the phase, conceding just 5.50. Delhi Capitals were the only side to get a start against KKR with a 93-run opening stand, but other than that, KKR have struck in the opening over thrice, with powerplay strikes in the other two. Their finishing, however, is at the other extreme, consistently leaking at over 10, with the game against RCB being the exception (conceded at 9). Umesh himself has 6-88 in the powerplay, versus 4-75 in 8 overs post that.

Rajasthan too have had similar woes, in terms of their starts and finishes. While a lot of the weight has been carried by Jos Buttler at the top, they've lacked a steady hand in the middle, especially from the bat of Sanju Samson. After a good start to the season, Samson's form has waned, with him struggling to score against pace with just 50 runs in 49 balls. Against spin, however, he's struck at 223.33. While Shimron Hetmyer has perfected his role as a finisher, Riyan Parag too has fallen short, with just 43 runs in 4 innings

RR have also leaked too many runs in the death. The middle overs have been ruled by Yuzvendra Chahal who has the purple cap and has been at the top of his game. In their latest defeat to Gujarat Titans, RR sorely missed Trent Boult who was out with a niggle. They will hope to have their ace pacer back for the KKR clash. Although they start as favourites ahead of the KKR clash, they have a few areas of concern that need to be addressed if they are to finish strong in the league stage.

When: RR vs KKR, April 18, 19:30 IST

Where: Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai

What to expect: Run-chases at the Brabourne Stadium have been quite comfortable, with plenty of runs coming in them. The wickets have been such that have supported run-scoring, but with dew coming into the picture, teams will be inclined towards chasing, following the trend in the tournament.

Head to head: Kolkata marginally lead the head-to-head tally between the sides 13-11. However, since 2018, it has been skewed in favour of KKR, who have won 7 games of their 9 clashes.

Team Watch:

Rajasthan Royals

Tactics & Matchups: Ashwin and Chahal have the wood over Aaron Finch and Nitish Rana. Ashwin may be given a go in the powerplay, while holding Chahal back for when Rana comes to the middle, with the legspinner getting the middle-order batter 4 times. Rana averages just 14 against Chahal, striking at 109.80. They would hope Trent Boult is fit to play and makes his way back into the XI in place of James Neesham.

Probable XI: Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Rassie van der Dussen, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Riyan Parag, Trent Boult, Kuldeep Sen, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal

Kolkata Knight Riders

Tactics & Matchups: Given the ominous form Jos Buttler has been this season, and given their spin twins' record against the RR 'keeper-bat in T20 cricket with 5 dismissals between them, may prompt them to have spin from one end in the powerplay. Against Chakravarthy, Buttler has only scored 12 runs in 8 balls, and has been dismissed twice. Samson, meanwhile, has fallen thrice to Umesh and Narine, striking at 79.67 and averaging 15.67 against the West Indian offspinner. KKR may also push Shreyas Iyer down the order to negate the Chahal threat in the middle overs.

Probable XI: Aaron Finch, Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Sheldon Jackson (wk), Pat Cummins, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Aman Hakim Khan, Varun Chakravarthy

Did you know?

Since 2020, Trent Boult has returned 78 wickets in 58 games, averaging 21.71 with an economy rate of 7.69.

After scores of 55 & 30 to start the season, Samson has scored 32 runs in the next 3 innings.

Andre Russell has the highest strike rate for anyone with over 1500 IPL runs. He strikes at 178.61 with 1879 runs.

Squads:

Rajasthan Royals Squad: Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson(w/c), Rassie van der Dussen, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, James Neesham, Ravichandran Ashwin, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Trent Boult, Karun Nair, Navdeep Saini, KC Cariappa, Daryl Mitchell, Obed McCoy, Tejas Baroka, Kuldip Yadav, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Anunay Singh, Dhruv Jurel, Shubham Garhwal

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Venkatesh Iyer, Aaron Finch, Shreyas Iyer(c), Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Sheldon Jackson(w), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Aman Hakim Khan, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Tim Southee, Sam Billings, Mohammad Nabi, Chamika Karunaratne, Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, Rinku Singh, Anukul Roy, Shivam Mavi, Pratham Singh, Abhijeet Tomar, Ashok Sharma, Ramesh Kumar, Harshit Rana

 

[Addicted]

RR move to second in the points table. And KKR after a strong start have added a string of losses. Today was a close one but their bowling stocks was deplorable. KKR though would be gutted. They seem to have it covered but one over from Chahal changed the game entirely. The jamboree moves on and we will move on from this carnage as well. This is Kumar Abhisekh Das buzzing off in company of Hariprasad Sadanandan, Pradeep Krishnamurthy and Mukesh.

Yuzvendra Chahal | Man of the Match: I had to take wickets in this match to change the result. I worked on my bowling. I spoke to the coaches and the skipper. I was thinking of a googly but then I didn't want to take a chance. Would have been a happy with a dot ball as well on my hat-trick ball. My googly was coming out well and sent it down to Venkatesh Iyer.

Sanju Samson | Winning captain: It got tensed. The quality of players made it very interesting. Very happy for the win. There are some things that need to used at the right time. You need to be smart enough to slow it down. I respect KKR as a unit. We never thought we were in the game. I think I don't need to talk much about individuals. We are lucky to have great players. Special mention to Ashwin for his delivery to Russell. And McCoy is an interesting guy. He doesn't talk much but seems to be in control over his bowling skills.

Obed McCoy: I am feeling good, this is my first game since last year, I had come under pressure, feeling good, it was just about getting over the nerves and going hard. I normally back my skills, but I haven't played a lot of cricket, so I backed my skills and went about trying to execute the plans, as in a normal scenario. I knew the batter would be looking for power, so I wanted to slow it down and wanted them to target the longer part of the ground. He (Shimron Hetmyer) was just telling me to bowl the way I normally bowl and give my best.

Shreyas Iyer | Losing captain: I think from the start we got, we really were going well according to the run-rate. Finchy was good but once he was out, we slowed down a bit. We lacked a bit over there, but it's a part of the game. Unfortunately we couldn't click. My plan was to bat through the end, the opposite batsman had to take it on from ball one. The matchup Rana had was with Chahal. He did not time that and it happens. He [Buttler] started a bit slow and after that he just went off. The way he manoeuvres the ball, he is a classy batsman. Kudos to the way he batted. If we had got him out early, the scoreboard would've looked very different. Dew didn't play a big role tonight. Amazing wicket to bat on. Unfortunately Brabourne hasn't been great for us. Hopefully we will come back hard in the coming games. There is a lot of pressure and I love pressure. I just wanted to set an example, doesn't matter whatever score they get. If they can get it, I can get it as well. That's how I was thinking.

KKR at Brabourne: 0 wins, 5 losses in IPL games.

23:37 Local Time, 18:07 GMT, 23:37 IST: A 200 plus score being chased down 14 years ago didn't seem that much probable. It seemed far-fetched rather. But IPL and T20 mercenaries have over the years defined that almost every record in this format is beatable. And KKR almost did that. A target of 218 needed relentless aggression. Finch provided the start, Iyer played the role of the catalyst and the others played their parts as well but didn't do it that effectively. RR were relieved as the game went away from them for most parts. A near perfect batting display wasn't enough. Chahal was the difference. His four wickets in an over broke the back of the chase and almost killed it before Umesh Yadav came out with a swinging blade. But McCoy held his nerves and delivered the fatal blows in the final over with 11 still needed.

 

[Addicted]

RR 217/5 (20)
KKR 210 (19.4)

Rajasthan Royals won by 7 runs

PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Yuzvendra Chahal