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IPL 2021, KKR vs RR: Kolkata Knight Riders Beat Rajasthan Royals By 86 Runs, Take Giant Step Towards Playoffs

Kolkata Knight Riders Win 2

Kolkata Knight Riders dominated Rajasthan Royals by an 86-run margin in Sharjah on Thursday, putting themselves in a strong position to secure a knockout berth in the Indian Premier League. KKR consolidated their position for the fourth and final play-off spot, finishing their round-robin engagements with 14 points from 14 games and an impressive net run rate of 0.587. With three play-off spots already secured — Delhi Capitals, Chennai Super Kings, and Royals Challengers Bangalore — KKR consolidated their position for the fourth and final play-off spot, finishing their round-robin engagements with 14 points from 14 games and an impressive net run rate of 0.587. The reigning champions Mumbai Indians are the only club still in the play-off competition with 12 points from 13 games, but they will need a strong win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in their final game on Friday to knock KKR out of fourth place.

Source: IPL

In order to go to the play-offs ahead of KKR, Mumbai will need a miracle.

After being called into bat, Shubman Gill hit his second consecutive fifty as KKR posted the highest score at the stadium this season, recording a competitive 171 for four.

KKR’s innings got off to a flying start, with Gilll (56 off 44) and Venkatesh Iyer (38 off 35) putting on a 79-run opening stand.

Rahul Tripathi (21), Dinesh Karthik (14 not out off 11), and captain Eoin Morgan (13 not out off 11) all contributed to KKR passing the 170-run mark in the last overs.

RR had a bad start to their pursuit, losing their best hitter of the season, Yashasvi Jaiswal, on the third ball of the innings to Shakib Al Hasan. Sanju Samson, the skipper, left in the first delivery of the next over, as if that wasn’t enough.

Lockie Ferguson returned to the side after recovering from an injury and struck twice in his first over, first dismissing Liam Livingstone and then dismissing young Anuj Rawat a ball later.

As RR continued to lose wickets at regular intervals, Mavi struck twice in the eighth over, upsetting the timbers of Glenn Phillips and Shivam Dube with his raw speed.

Varun Chakravarthy, the mystery spinner, was not to be left out, as he joined the party in the following over, dismissing Chris Morris for LBW. As RR reached 49 for seven in the tenth over, Rahul Tewatia took the assault to the opposition and hammered Mavi for three boundaries.

Tewatia resumed his aggressive display with no pressure on his back, clobbering Chakravarthy over deep square leg boundary for the opening six runs of the RR innings.

Tewatia scored 44 runs in 36 balls, but it wasn’t enough as KKR bowled RR out for 85 runs.

Mavi concluded with 4/21, his best IPL numbers, and Ferguson (3/18) was equally impressive with the bat.

Earlier, KKR had reached 50 in the eighth over thanks to Gill and Iyer’s strong start.

Iyer didn’t hold back his natural instincts, clobbering Jaydev Unadkat over the deep midwicket boundary in the 10th over and then clean over the bowler’s head two bowlers later to take KKR to 75 for no loss at the halfway mark.

Gill then joined the party, inspired by Iyer’s power-hitting, and greeted Rahul Tewatia with a maximum. Tewatia, on the other hand, had the last laugh as he gave his team the crucial breakthrough by going through Iyer’s defence between his legs as the left-hander attempted a flamboyant reverse sweep.

The RR skipper then put Phillips into the attack, but the off-spinner was dismissed for 17 runs, although picking up Nitish Rana’s wicket in the process.

Rahul Tripathi was fortunate to be given a reprieve after being dropped by Samson after he outside edged a full delivery from Mustafizur Rahman in the 13th over.

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