KKR vs RR Match Report: Knight Riders trump Royals in the Eliminator

KKR vs RR Eliminator, IPL 2018

Score summary:

KKR: 169/7; Karthik 52, Archer 2/33

RR: 144/4; Samson 50, Chawla 2/24

Match Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 25 runs

Kolkata – Just like Qualifier 1, Eliminator was an absolute thriller! In a seesaw contest, Kolkata held their nerve to advance to Qualifier 2 by beating Rajasthan Royals by 25 runs.

The visiting Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field first. Gowtham struck in the very first over to give RR an ideal start. Keeping the pressure on, the Royals reduced Knight Riders to 4-51.

The KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik stitched 55-run partnership with Shubman Gill to rebuild the innings, with the former scoring a fluent 52 off 38 balls. Russell’s blitz – 49 off 25 balls – towards the end of the innings pushed the home team to a par score.

In reply, Rajasthan Royals started the chase well putting 47 runs for the first wicket in 5.1 overs. They were cruising at one stage but the wickets of Rahane and Samson gave KKR the sniff.

The bowlers pulled things back to restrict the chasing team to 144/4 in 20 overs.  Yadav and Chawla shared 3 wickets between them, giving away only 42 runs in 8 overs.