XtraTime Web Desk: Kolkata Knight Riders registered their second win in the IPL 2020 beating Rajasthan Royals by 37 runs. With this win they move up to the second place in the points table with 4 points in 3 matches.
Batting first, KKR put up a competitive total of 174 runs. Shubman Gill scored 47 runs while Eoin Morgan contributed 34 runs in the total. Jofra Archer bowled superbly as he conceded only 18 runs and took 2 crucial wickets. However, that’s the only good performance from Rajasthan camp today. Their batting failed miserably and the young bowlers of KKR changed the game for them as Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti took two wickets each. Mavi gave away 20 runs in his 4 overs while Nagarkoti conceded only 13 runs while taking 2 wickets. Varun Chakravarty also took 2 wickets for KKR.
With this, Rajasthan registered their first defeat in this year’s IPL. Shivam Mavi because of his tremendous bowling earned the man of the match title. In the post match conference he talked about his plans for the match. He said, “When I started bowling, it was seaming. So I thought I’ll stick to normal lines and lengths. Before the game we thought it would be flatter. So I just stuck to a length. I have played against these big stars before, but I knew it wasn’t coming onto the bat.”
Dinesh Karthik, the winning captain wasn’t very satisfied with the win. He said, “Wouldn’t call it a perfect game. Lot of areas we need to improve. The way Gill batted, Mavi bowled, Russell batted. Also the youngsters going after the high catches.”
The captain also appreciated Archer’s bowling in the middle and backed Mavi and Nagarkoti after such performance. “Archer bowled really well. Wasn’t that easy a wicket to bat on. Couple of guys made it look better than it was. These boys, the journey they’ve been through when they’re not playing, is a hard one.”
Steve Smith, the losing captain didn’t seem much worried about the loss. In the post match conference, he said, “Didn’t quite go to plan. That happens in T20 cricket sometimes, we have a few areas to improve on, and keep moving forward.”
When asked about the decision of bowling first, smith said, “You could go one way or another, KKR like to chase. We planned to put their death bowling under pressure but obviously couldn’t do that as we lost wickets upfront. Few of still thought we are playing in Sharjah.”