Match 15, IPL 2018: Nitish Rana’s All-Round Performance Takes KKR On Top

Its already match 15 of IPL 2018. The cricket comes straight from the hometown of the Royals. Rajasthan Royals host Kolkata Knight Riders. See how KKR go top of the table with this victory.

Build Up

Both the teams have a couple of wins behind them but Royals do have a game in the bag.  Royals won their last game against RCB as Sanju Samson played the innings of his life. Whereas KKR won by a huge margin against Delhi. Both teams will be looking to continue the momentum.

Teams Unchanged

Both teams go unchanged from their last match. The Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl.

Rajasthan’s Batting

Initial stages of the competition but Rajasthan’s openers haven’t gotten the team to a good start. They will be looking to turn that around today. The Royals started off slow as the 2 spinners gave away just 9 runs in the first 3 overs but then Rahane sent Sunil Narine to the park, hitting him for 4 consecutive boundaries. Rahane who went shortly after bringing the 50 run partnership, scored 36 off 19 balls.

Rajasthan kept losing wickets at regular intervals as the batsmen with the highest individual score was D Arcy Short who scored 44 in 43 balls. The team struggled at home and could put up only 160 at the loss of 8 wickets. RR will be unsatisfied with this below par total.

KKR’s Bowling

The captain started off with 2 spinners which worked in their favor as they gave away just 9 runs in the first 3 overs. it wasn’t Sunil Narine’s day as he ended up with figures of 0-48 in his 4 overs, making it his most expensive spell in IPL. The Knight Riders got wickets at regular wickets as expect for Sunil Narine all the bowlers were amongst the wickets. The 3 spinners, Rana, Chawla and Kuldeep bowled brilliantly as they got 4 wickets giving away just 52 runs in 10 overs amongst them. Indicating the slowness of the track. KKR restricted the home team to 160 for 8.

Knight Rider’s Batting

Knight Riders started off poorly as they lost Lynn on the second ball. Sunil Narine and Robin Uthappa build a partnership of 70 before Sunil Narine got run out for 35 off 25 balls hitting  5 boundaries and a six. The pitch looked difficult for the new batsmen to get in.

Rohin Uthappa went for a well played 48 off 36 balls with 6 boundaries and 2 maximums. The target was too simple for the inform KKR batting line-up as they chase 161 with more than one over left and 7 wickets in hand. They defeat Rajasthan Royals in their fortress. Karthik finished the match off in style with a six.

RR’s Bowling

Gowtham got the Rajasthan fans cheering as he got the wicket of Chris Lynn on his very second delivery. The bowlers looked out of sort after that as Narine and Uthappa scored freely. Miscommunication between the batsmen saw the home team get another wicket and Sunil Narine went back. There was nothing extraordinary about Rajasthan’s bowling as they failed to defend against KKR which resulted in their second defeat of the season.

Man Of The Match

For his 2 wickets and 35 not out, it was Nitish Rana who won the man of the match award.

Click here to check out how Rohit overcame Virat Kohli in the last match.