IPL 2021 KKR vs RR Match 18 Report

image: BCCI

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and chose to bowl first, KKR begins with a slow and steady over. RR bowlers didn't give any chance to KKR openers Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill. By the end of the powerplay, KKR lost a wicket of Shubman Gill and scored 25 runs and had a run rate below 5 runs per over.

Then Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana tried to revive the score but, in Chetan Sakariya's 10th over, Nitish Rana was caught by Sanju Samson behind the wickets. From then on, the RR bowlers picking the wickets regularly and not giving KKR batsmen any chance of scoring runs.

Except for Rahul Tripathi, no one scored more than 30 runs in this innings. An exceptional bowling performance from the Rajasthan Royals bowlers helped them to restrict KKR for just 133 runs with a loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.

The top order of KKR just collapsed to RR bowlers in this innings. Chris Morris took 4 wickets in the death overs.

With decent runs to chase, Jos Buttler opened the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal instead of Manan Vohra, it seemed to have worked this time. 

In Varun Chakravarthy's 4th over, Jos Buttler got out after the ball hitting the pads before the stumps. In the hawk eye, the ball is just touching the bails. Jos Buttler departed without reviewing it after a heated discussion with the RR's young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Then, Yashasvi departed after trying to hit a boundary in Shivam Mavi's 5th over. Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube made a 45 runs partnership in 39 balls. In Varun Chakravarthi's 11th over, Shivam Dube was caught by Prasidh Krishna at the third man.

After a short cameo from Rahul Tewatia, David Miller ad Sanju Samson scored the final runs for the Rajasthan Royals and lead the team to victory. 

RR won this match because of good bowling from the start of the match. Chris Morris took 4 wickets in the death overs and won the Man of the Match award for his contribution to the team's victory.