Hello everyone and thank you for coming to read the summary of match 18 of the IPL 2021 that was played between Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders. Both the teams needed a win desperately and Rajasthan won this match to win after 2 consecutive losses. For Kolkata, it was their 4th consecutive loss. And the team looks in a very bad state.
Talking from the beginning, Rajasthan won the toss and asked Kolkata to bat first at the Wankhede stadium. Shubhman Gill and Nitish Rana opened the inning for Kolkata and they got the worst start they could have dreamed of. Neither of the two openers could get going at any stage of the game and they struggled to time the ball. Shubhman Gill was run-out in the 6th over and he made just 11 runs in 19 balls. Kolkata was at 24 runs at that stage. Nitish Rana got out in the 9th over and he made 22 runs in 25 runs. Kolkata had 45 runs on board then. And Kolkata never recovered from there. Rahul Tripathi made 36 runs but he struggled too and Dinesh Karthick made 25 runs at run-a-ball. Andre Russell and Pat Cummins played some balls too but they had to try and hit every ball at that stage and they got out that way. At a ground where 180 is also not safe, Kolkata scored 133 runs. Chris Morris was the star for Rajasthan as he took 4 wickets in his spell while giving away just 23 runs. Rajasthan's fielding was outstanding too as they took awesome catches and got 2 wickets as run-outs.
To chase down 134, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal opened for Rajasthan. Buttler was dismissed by Varun Chakraborty on 5 runs in the 4th over and Jaiswal was dismissed by Shivam Mavi on 22 runs in the 5th over but Rajasthan had 50 runs on board by the end of the power play overs. Shivam Dube and Sanju Samson were the next batsmen and both played sensibly to put up a good partnership in the middle. Shivam Dube got out in the 11th over but Rajasthan had scored 85 runs by then. But Sanju Samson stayed not out till the end and saw his team through. David Miller struggled initially but he didn't throw his wicket away and he too went back not out. Sanju scored 40 balls - 41 runs and Miller scored 23 balls - 24 runs. Kolkata bowlers didn't have much to defend so they can't be blamed for this loss of their team.
Rajasthan would be pleased with their performance but Kolkata would be disappointed with theirs. Kolkata really needs to make some changes in their playing 11 to change their fortunes. Hopefully, they figure out a better combination in the next matches. Rajasthan would want their openers to score some more runs, especially Buttler who has struggled in the last 2 matches. Their middle-order batsmen are yet to prove themselves. Hopefully, they would be up for the task in the next matches.
Up next in the tournament we have 2 big matches on 25th April. The table toppers, Royal Challengers Bangalore would be up against the number 2 team, Chennai Super Kings in the afternoon match at Wankhede stadium. And Delhi Daredevils would be playing against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the evening match at the Chidambaram stadium. This is going to be a very exciting day as all 4 teams have been playing at their best in the recent past and it would be exciting to see which two teams win. Please read the summary of both the matches here on Monday morning.
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