KOLKATA (West Bengal): Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult’s blistering spells helped Rajasthan Royals (RR) restrict Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 149/8 in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 match here at Eden Gardens on Thursday.
Chahal delivered a fine performance to bag four wickets, conceding just 25 runs in his 4 overs spell. Trent Boult scalped two wickets. For KKR, Venkatesh Iyer played a fighting knock of 57 runs after early hiccups, while Nitish Rana slammed 22 runs.
Opted to field first, Rajasthan got off to a blistering start as Trent Boult dismissed Jason Roy who is in good form in the season. Roy went back to the pavilion after scoring just 10 runs.
Roy’s wicket invited left-handed batter Venkatesh Iyer to the crease. Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the third over thumped Sandeep Sharma for 15 runs with the help of two back-to-back sixes.
However, Gurbaz’s stay at the crease was cut short as Boult provide his team with another breakthrough in the 5th over of the game.
The left-handed batter and KKR captain Nitish Rana then came out to bat. Iyer joined hands with the captain and slammed Ravichandran Ashwin for 18 runs with the help of two sixes and one four.
Yuzvendra Chahal then joined the ticket-taking party as he dismissed Rana for 22 in the 11th over of the game. With the KKR captain’s, wicket Chahal added another feather to his cap as he became the leading wicket-taker in the history of IPL.
Andre Russell then came out to bat. Iyer smoked Chahal for 15 runs with three stunning boundaries in the 13th over. Russell’s short knock of 10 runs came to an end as he was sent packing by KM Asif in the 14th over of the game.
The left-handed batter Rinku Singh then came out to bat. Venkatesh Iyer brought up a fine and well-made half-century off just 39 deliveries in the 16th over of the game.
Chahal then delivered a fine ball to remove well-set batter Iyer for 57 in the 17th over of the game. Chahal then in the same over struck again as he dismissed Shardul Thakur for just 1 run.
In the 19th over of the game, Chahal then removed Rinku Singh for 16 runs. Sunil Narine then came out to bat. In the final over Sandeep Sharma then removed Narine for 6 to restrict KKR to 149/8 in 20 overs.
Brief score: Kolkata Knight Riders 149/8 (Venkatesh Iyer 57, Nitish Rana 22; Yuzvendra Chahal 25-4) vs Rajasthan Royals. (ANI)