It was virtually a make-or-game for Rajasthan Royals, who after a fine start had lost their way with three consecutive defeats. And they came all guns firing against the Kolkata Knight Riders, with an emphatic nine wicket victory to inch closer to the play-offs, in Kolkata on Thursday, May 11, 2023.
It was clear that Royals were desperate to stamp their authority after they messed up an easy victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Trent Boult, who was back in the team, proved his worth by dismissing both the KKR openers in his first spell, which saw Kolkata struggle to 37/2 in the Powerplay.
Venkatesh Iyer tried to salvage a comeback in the middle over as he smashed 57 from 42 balls, but KKR came undone against Yuzvendra Chahal.
The leg-spinner took 4/25 as KKR stumbled to 149/8 in their 20 overs. While the RR bowling was top class, their fielding left eveyone amazed at the Eden Gardens.
Shimron Hetmyer took a superb well-judged catch inches from the boundary to dismiss Jason Roy, while Sandeep Sharma came up with another stunning effort at mid-off to send back Rahmanullah Gurbaz -- both of whom fell to Boult.
Hetmyer came up with another splendid catch, to get Nitish Rana off Chahal's bowling.
Chahal got his name in the record book as his four-wicket haul took him to the top of the IPL wicket-taking list with 187 wickets 143 games.
KKR were never let off the hook by the Royals' bowling unit as they played out as many as 48 dot balls -- which meant that they not scored a run from eight out of their 20 overs.
If KKR had harboured any hopes of comeback with the ball, they were all doused in the first over itself.
It was a rollicking start for the Royals with the bat as Yashasvi Jaiswal slammed the first two balls of the innings, from part-time spinner Nitish Rana for sixes.
The gamble to open with spin backfired big time as Jaiswal slammed 26 from the opening over and there was no looking back from that point onwards.
Jaiswal blasted the fastest-ever IPL half-century as he got there off just 13 balls. Courtesy of Jaiswal's blitzkrieg, Royals raced to 78/1 in their first six overs of Powerplay.
Royals had smashed 11 fours and four sixes in their first six overs while scoring just 37, while KKR had managed just three fours and two sixes in their Powerplay, which ultimately went a long way in deciding the outcome of the game.
The only relief for KKR was that Jos Buttler was run out for a duck. Sanju Samson didn't have a smooth start but once he got his eye, he also took the bowlers to the cleaners.
With KKR struggling to make an impact with the ball, Royals were quick to seize the opportunity to improve their net run rate.
It was a thrashing KKR would like to forget in a hurry!
This was the second-fastest run chase by a team going after a target of 150 or more (in terms of balls remaining) as Royals won with 41 balls to spare only second to Deccan Chargers' record of 48 balls balls remaining against the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2008.
