Apr 18, 2018 10:45 PM IST | Source: Moneycontrol.com
IPL 2018 RR vs KKR Live updates: Robin Uthappa, Nitish Rana lead Knight Riders’ chase
Catch the latest updates as the Kolkata Knight Riders take on the Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur's Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
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highlights
WICKET! Sunil Narine run out Unadkat/Buttler 35(25)
Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa put KKR on course
WICKET! Chris Lynn b Gowtham
Kolkata Knight Riders need 161 runs to win off 20 overs.
WICKET! Kulkarni (run out) Shubman Gill/S Mavi
WICKET! Gopal b Curran
WICKET! Gowtham c Mavi b Curran
WICKET! Ben Stokes c Nitish Rana b Piyush Chawla
WICKET! Tripathi c Andre Russell b Yadav
WICKET! D’Arcy Short b Nitish Rana 44 (43)
WICKET! Sanju Samson c Kuldeep Yadav b Shivam Mavi
WICKET! Ajinkya Rahane st Karthik b Rana
Here are the playing XIs:
TEAM CHANGES: Both teams have decided to go ahead with the same playing XI. No changes to the side.
TOSS: Dinesh Karthik won the toss and opted to bowl first.
The toss will happen at 19:30, as expected.
Gowtham comes in to bowl his third over and gives away just three of the over. Uthappa is closing in on his half-century.
KKR now need 71 off 54 balls.
KKR 90/2 after 11 overs.
Stokes returns for his second over. Misfield by Unadkat gifts Uthappa a boundary of the 2nd delivery. 10 runs of the over.
KKR 87/2 after 10 overs.
Gopal begins his 2nd over. KKR seem well placed so far, with the batsmen pacing their innings well. Narine goes for the reverse sweep and begins running without looking towards Uthappa who doesn’t leave his crease, good throw by Unadkat doesn’t give him a chance to return to safety.
Nitish Rana steps out for KKR. Uthappa ends the over with a Six!
KKR 77/2 after 9 overs.
WICKET! Sunil Narine run out Unadkat/Buttler 35(25)
Ben Stokes is called into the attack. Big shout for a LBW on his first delivery but the umpire isn’t interested. Narine gets lucky of the 3rd delivery, big leading edge takes the ball to the boundary in the third man region. Good over by Stokes, just the 6 runs of it.
KKR 68/1 after 8 overs.
Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa put KKR on course
Kolkata Knight Riders overcame the loss of an early wicket and were cruising along at 53-1 after the Powerplay.
After the first three overs, Kolkata were 15 for one but in the next three they raked up 38 runs.
Opener Sunil Narine began the run charge with three successive fours off pacer Dhaval Kulkarni and then Robin Uthappa emulated him in the next over bowled by left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat. Uthappa smacked three fours off four balls and was on 25 off 16 balls.
Narine, who hit a six of pacer Ben Laughlin off the last ball of the sixth over to bring up the 50-run partnership with Uthappa, was on 28 off 18 balls.
Chris Lynn’s dismissal was about how not to bat on this wicket. The Australian played across trying to play the cut shot and was bowled. The lesson: play straight against the spinners.
Rahane introduces Gopal into the attack. RR require wickets to take away the momentum from KKR. Uthappa goes for the big one, after 2 dot balls he pulls the next one over the ropes for a six. Narine picks up a couple of the last ball. 9 off the over.
KKR 62/1 after 7 overs.
Laughlin begins his first over. Uthappa beats his first delivery down short fine leg for a four. Narine dispatches his last delivery down deep extra cover for a big one, gets his first six of the innings. Another good over for KKR.
KKR 53/1 after 6 overs.
Unadkat brought into the attack. Uthappa welcomes him with a boundary of just his second delivery, pull shot over mid wicket. Unadkat recovers well with a good length delivery. Uthappa stands his ground and dispatches the next one down the ground for a boundary. Another boundary! Uthappa cuts the ball for another four. 13 runs of the over.
KKR 40/1 after 5 overs.
Kulkarni begins his second over. Good start with 2 dot balls. Narine slices the 3rd one over the fielders on the off side for a boundary. Another boundary down extra cover for Narine, making good use of the powerplay field restrictions.
Narine finds the boundary once more, this time with a pull shot down mid wicket. 3 consecutive fours. Good over for KKR.
KKR 27/1 after 4 overs.
Gowtham comes back for the third over. Uthappa plays the first ball of his back foot for a boundary. Gowtham recovers well, concedes just 2 runs after the first boundary. Just 6 runs of the over.
KKR 15/1 after 3 overs.
Kulkarni begins the pace attack for the Royals. Narine plays him over the off side for a couple, wants the third but is sent back by Uthappa. Kulkarni responds well with a dot ball. Narine cuts the 4th ball over the keeper for the first boundary of the game and takes a single of the next one. Uthappa ends the over with a single.
KKR 9/1 after 2 overs.
RR opt for spin to open the bowling and it bears immediate result. Gowthan gets the perfect start for Rajasthan, bowls out Lynn on his 3rd delivery. Robin Uthappa steps out for KKR. Good start by Gowtham, just the one run of the over.
KKR 1/1 after the first over.
WICKET! Chris Lynn b Gowtham
Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine step out to open the batting for KKR. Gowtham will open the bowling for the Royals.
161 required at only 8 runs per over, it will be interesting to watch how KKR pace their innings.
Rajasthan finish on 160
Rajasthan scored 48 runs in the last five overs, losing three wickets, as they finished on 160 for 8 in 20 overs. Kolkata will be content at restricting their rivals on a pitch where run scoring is not easy.
Rajasthan faltered largely against the spinners as they lost four of the first five wickets to the slow bowlers. Although they did well against Sunil Narine who was wicketless and conceded 48 runs, they struggled against the rest (Piyush Chawla 4-0-18-1, Kuldeep Yadav 4-0-23-1, Nitish Rana 2-0-11-2).
Captain Ajinkya Rahane (35) was the only batsman who had a measure of the spin bowlers but the rest including topscorer D’Arcy Short (44) couldn’t get going.
Dinesh Karthik showed admirable faith in young Shivam Mavi by giving him the final and the pacer did well by not conceding any boundary, giving away just nine runs.
Rajasthan bowlers have to be really disciplined if they are to defend this score against a Kolkata line-up that is high on confidence after their victory in the last match.
Kolkata Knight Riders need 161 runs to win off 20 overs.
Chris Lynn drops Kulkarni on the first ball and ends up getting Buttler on strike. Good running by the batting duo helps Buttler retain strike on the second ball.
Seemingly, Mavi wanted to bowl slightly wide but ended up bowling two successive wide deliveries.
Amidst quick running, Dhawal Kulkarni was run out. Long over. But, 9 off it.
RR 160/8 after 20 overs.
WICKET! Kulkarni (run out) Shubman Gill/S Mavi
Tom Curran comes in to bowl his second over and tastes instant success: Gowtham hits the ball straight to Shivam Mavi at point. Next ball, Shreyas Gopal picks the wrong line and gets bowled. Two wickets off two balls.
However, he misses a hat-trick as Dhawal Kulkarni casually plays the ball to the third man, to pick a run. Buttler ends the over with a four, down the ground.
RR 151/7 after 19 overs.
WICKET! Gopal b Curran
WICKET! Gowtham c Mavi b Curran
Narine finishes his spell. After a couple of dot balls, Gowtham launches the ball straight down the ground for a six. Then, Jos Buttler hammers the ball through the covers for a four.
RR 141/5 after 18 overs.
Stokes goes for the big shot, only to find Nitish Rana in the deep on the first ball. Chawla ends his spell.
Chawla 1-18 in four overs.
RR 127/5 after 17 overs.
Spinners continue to torment Rajasthan
After 10 overs, Rajasthan ramped up the scoring rate with 24 runs in the next 12 balls but thereafter Kolkata spinners applied the brakes by not only choking the run flow but also picking two wickets.
Opener D’Arcy Short, who struggled throughout his 43-ball stay, was the first to depart in the 13thover when he played across to a straight ball and was bowled by Nitish Rana for 44.
In the next over, Rahul Tripathi (15), after pulling chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav for a four, failed to keep a chip shot down and Andre Russell leapt high at short cover to catch it.
WICKET! Ben Stokes c Nitish Rana b Piyush Chawla
Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes are at the crease. The ball keeps low as they pick singles before Stokes smacks the ball out of the ground for a six. Kuldeep Yadav winds up his spell for the night. 10 off it.
RR 122/4 after 16 overs.