Kolkata Knight Riders have breached Rajasthan Royals’ fortress as the men led by Dinesh Karthik crushed Ajinkya Rahane’s team with a 7-wicket win at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. KKR are now leading the points table with three wins from five matches.

Winning the toss KKR chose to bowl first. After a 54-run opening partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and D’Arcy Short, Nitish Rana drew first blood by removing Rahane on 36. He later bowled the other opener out after Shivam Mavi sent Sanju Samson back to the hut.

Short made 44 runs before leaving the ground. With the rest of the batting line-up failing to turn up against KKR’s bowling attack, Jos Buttler played an unbeaten 24-run innings to help his team register a defendable total.

RR lost eight wickets while posting a total of 160 runs. Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav took a wicket each while Tom Curran also picked up two wickets for the visiting side.

In response, KKR lost Chris Lynn early at the hands of Krishnappa Gowtham but the other batsmen stood firm and batted responsibly to steer the team to victory. Suni Narine fell victim to a run out scoring 35 runs. Robin Uthappa clubbed 48 runs before Gowtham scalped his wicket.

Nitish Rana then stitched an unbeaten 61-run stand along with KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik take the team home. KKR won the match with 7 wickets and 7 deliveries in hand.

RR will face CSK in their next match, on April 20, a day before the clash between KKR and Kings XI Punjab.

 

Score:

RR 160/8 (20 Overs)