Kolkata Knight Riders 161 for 6 (Rinku 53*, 29*, Jadeja 2-8, beat Rajasthan Royals 155 for 9 (Sooryavanshi 46, Jaiswal 39, Varun 3-14, Tyagi 3-22) by four wickets
Jofra Archer, though, set the tone of the defence with a first-ball wicket for the third match in a row before the spinners squeezed the life out of the KKR batting, but luck gave Rinku and KKR a second chance, which they grabbed.
Vaibhav Sooryavasnhi, Yashasvi Jaiswal play the conditions
This has to be the slowest Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal have played together. There was early recognition there that this pitch was not going to be easy for new batters. So they gave themselves some time and looked to prefer quantity of runs to the pace.
However, it didn’t stop Sooryavanshi from hitting Narine for a second-ball six after he introduced himself to Jasprit Bumrah with a first-ball six. It was only a 22-run final powerplay over from Cameron Green that turned 41 into 63.
Varun, Narine check in
Sooryavanshi has a habit of making a big statement early against big bowlers as seen in the cases of Bumrah and Narine. He looked to do the same with Varun second ball he faced, took the big leg side on, and holed out to deep midwicket. Had he connected with this wrong’un, he would have brought up his slowest IPL fifty. Let it sink in that said fifty would have taken just 28 balls.
KKR now burst through this small opening. Dhruv Jurel was stumped on the reverse sweep off Varun, Narine slowed the ball down to have Jaiswal caught at extra cover for 39 off 29. Riyan Parag looked to slog Varun and was bowled. In his last over, Narine brought out the carrom ball to first go past Donovan Ferreira and then create a return catch on the last ball of his assignment. The 10 middle overs had produced 5 for 61.
Tyagi turns in career-best figures
Now that the spin bowlers were done, RR were still hopeful of a decent score against an inexperienced pace attack. Shimron Hetmyer and Ravindra Jadeja’s presence meant Roy would still not be used. However, the left-hand batters executed poorly in the 19th over. Jadeja played an in-between pull to be caught at long leg. Hetmyer looked for a cute sweep on a rank full toss and got a leading edge to deep third. A third bonus wicket made it a personal best of 3 for 22 for Tyagi. RR had failed to double their first partnership and needed to do something they had done only three times in their history: successfully defend 155 or below in a full T20 game.
RR start off sensationally
Unlike the KKR quicks, though, RR fast bowlers found some movement and dismissed the openers for ducks. Jurel pulled off a piece of work that deserves to go into the stumping hall of fame with a blind reverse flick while diving full length to the leg side to send back Green.
Another opening for KKR
With everything going RR’s way, Jadeja should have had a third wicket at the end of his third over. Jurel of that sensational stumping now ran back towards short third for a sitter, was distracted by his wobbling helmet, signalled the short third fielder to go for the catch, which was still a sitter, but Nandre Burger dropped it. That would have got Rinku out for 8 off 9 and left KKR at 73 for 6 in 11 overs.
Parag’s mind got cute now. Jadeja, who had not conceded a single boundary in his first three overs and should have had a left-hand batter’s wicket, was taken off because of left-hand batters in the middle. Bishnoi came on in the 13th and conceded the first boundary in the last 28 legal deliveries. Parag brought himself on ahead of Jadeja, and went for a four in a 10-run over.
At 59 from five overs, though, RR would have still backed themselves, but Bishnoi made an ordinary start to the 16th, feeding Rinku a loopy half-volley, which he demolished. Roy ended that over with an exquisite drive over extra cover for the six of the match. All of a sudden, 40 off last four began to look easy with Narine yet to bat.
Archer and Brijesh Sharma, bowling for the first time in the match, bowled decently in the last four but Roy was good enough to punish slight errors in length, and Rinku found some well-deserved luck through some loose balls.
Archer pretty much nailed the 19th over, but missed his yorker slightly on two occasions with Roy pouncing on one of them for a six, which left KKR an easy nine to get off the last over.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo
