(Cricket news) The powerplay saw Kolkata lose their first three wickets, but skipper Nitish Rana (57*, 44b, 6×4, 1×6) and Rinku Singh (54, 43b, 4×4, 3×6) put together a crucial 99-run stand to lead their team to victory. Earlier, the Knight Riders’ disciplined bowling ensured Chennai was limited to a respectable 144 runs, with Shivam Dube leading the way with 48 runs off 34 balls.
The best bowler, Sunil Narine, returned with figures of 2/15. With this victory, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Rajasthan Royals, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Punjab Kings are the only four teams with 12 points who are not separated by net run rate. With 15 points, Chennai Super Kings are still in second place.
In this IPL season, Rinku Singh has been the surprise star for Kolkata Knight Riders.He continued his brilliant form with yet another match winning knock, leading to JioCinema TATA IPL expert Parthiv Patel showering him with plaudits. “He has shown his range yet again. Today, he came to bat during the powerplay and the way he played against Ravindra Jadeja, there was great maturity in his shot selection. He is showing different dimensions of his batting, like we saw that he was playing in the lower order previously but today he came and batted in the powerplay and played till there were just a few runs left. Generally, we have seen him staying not out till the end and the most important sign of a good batsman is to win the match for his side. Though unfortunately, he was run out today, but he brought the match to a position from where KKR couldn’t have lost.”
The Knight Riders were in trouble after dropping three wickets in a row. However, the side was able to secure two significant points because to the 99-run combination between Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh.
TATA IPL expert Brett Lee spoke highly of this key partnership and said, “On a wicket that was conducive to spin bowling, it was the slower balls that did a good job but they put the bowlers under pressure. Now for someone like a Moeen Ali, they had to make him pay. They attacked him first up, they took him off his length and what that does, it actually puts the bowler under immense pressure. So, they found a way to make it fall back in there, I guess their asset tonight.”
He added, “They used their feet, they had some shots down the ground and they weren’t afraid to just manoeuvre the ball around when they had to as well. It wasn’t just about big power hitting, they took their ones and twos and when the boundary ball was there, they smacked it for four or six.”
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