Kolkata,may 4
A magnificent fighting 95 from skipper Riyan Parag went in vain as defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) held their nerves to deny Rajasthan Royals (RR) a win, leaving them one run short at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.Chasing 207 runs, RR was 71/5, but a 92-run stand between Parag and Shimron Hetmyer and fireworks from Shubham Dubey and Jofra Archer almost took them home, until the pair failed to complete a double on the final ball to push the match into a Super Over.
KKR is at sixth spot with five wins and five losses, giving them 10 points and keeping their defence alive. RR is at eighth, with three wins and nine losses, giving them six points.During the run-chase of 207 runs, RR found themselves at backfoot after a young Vaibhav Suryavanshi lost his wicket to Vaibhav Arora for just four runs after dispatching him for a boundary and Kunal Singh Rathore was caught by Andre Russell at mid-on on a Moeen Ali delivery. RR was 8/2 in 1.5 overs.Skipper Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal took to attack against the pace pair of Vaibhav and Harshit Rana, with both hitting a six each against Vaibhav and then Parag dismantling Rana with two fours and a six.Jaiswal was dealing in fours, collecting two of them against Varun Chakravarthy in the next over and ending the powerplay with a hat-trick of fours against Rana. RR was 50-up in 5.2 overs. At the end of six overs, RR was 59/2, with Jaiswal (32*) and Parag (22*) unbeaten.Moeen put an end to a 58-run partnership between the duo, with Rinku Singh taking a fine diving catch to remove Jaiswal for 34 in 21 balls, with five fours and a six. RR is 66/3 in seven overs.In the eighth over, Chakravarthy shifted the game in KKR’s favour, removing Dhruv Jurel and Wanindu Hasaranga for ducks. RR was 71/5 in 7.5 overs.At the end of 10 overs, RR was 82/5, with Parag (34*) and Shimron Hetmyer (8*) unbeaten.
Parag and Hetmyer collected boundaries in later overs, bringing RR to 100-run mark in 11.5 overs.
