RR 160/8 (20.0 Ovs)
KKR 163/3 (18.5 Ovs)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wkts
So KKR have broken RR's winning streak at this venue in IPL (9 games) to climb to the top of the table. Things have fallen together nicely for them in these last couple of games. We'll see if they can sustain this momentum. That's a wrap of our coverage for today. This is Sagar Chawla signing off on behalf of Srivathsa, Nikhil Jadhav, Akshay Maanay, Abhinand Raghavendran and our scorer Shashikant Singh. Goodnight!
Rana, MoM: I know that my job is to defend runs and that's what I was striving for. I bowl regularly in domestic cricket. Backed myself, and I'm lucky to be MoM in both these last two games. Big platform this, we don't get loose balls regularly. The ones we get have to be converted into boundaries. That's why I was getting frustrated that I wasn't able to put some of them away. It's there at the back of my mind (to play for India), but right now my focus is to do my best.
Karthik, KKR captain: Feels good to get two wins on the trot. Slowly things are going in a good direction. Just feel that the wrist-spinners are a little harder to pick. For the fast bowlers, it could come onto the bat. So it makes sense to go with spinners at the top. Spinners did a good job for us. The way Robin batted was fantastic. He set the tone for us. Nitish is getting used to that role where he's coming not out which is good to see. Fielding could be better, death bowling could be better. If you want me to be harsh, even fast bowlers could be better. Consistency is something we're looking at as a team. Rana is a good player. Last year he did well for MI. And now he's come to KKR. He's got a couple of rough ones, got a couple of good catches taken off him. His arm is slightly higher than Kedar Jadhav but he's done a good job for us.
Piyush Chawla: It is not easy to bowl in the powerplay. But at the moment, I am really enjoying it. As a leg-spinner, I always look to take wickets. But, when the situation demands, you have to bowl defensively. I always try to take wickets. We are fortunate enough to have 3 quality spinners and if you bowl well in tandem, you can restrict the teams under 150-160.
Ajinkya Rahane, RR captain: I thought we were 15-20 runs short. In T20 it's always not about scoring 180. In this format, fielding is a crucial part. We let ourselves down in fielding. Very disappointing. Game 1 - (the wicket had) very good bounce. Today, the ball was keeping low. But no complaints. I got a good start and it was my responsibility to carry on. We thought 175-180 would have been good on this wicket. Doesn't make too much difference (losing the toss) I believe in playing good cricket. The intensity has to be up to the mark. Our intensity was a little bit down today. It wasn't there. I wanted to keep backing my players (on an unchanged XI). T20 is all about backing your players. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Boys are doing really well. I just wanted to stick to the same combination.
23:26 Local Time, 17:56 GMT, 23:26 IST: Really good knock there from Dinesh Karthik. He's had a rusty start to the IPL, but there were no signs of that tonight right from the minute he stepped in. KKR lost Lynn for a duck, but the freedom with which Narine and Uthappa batted in the powerplay set them on their way. At no point after the first over, did RR look like being in the game. They were probably a bit too light with their first innings score, for which the credit must go to how well the visitors' spinners bowled. Despite Narine enduring his worst IPL figures, Chawla, Kuldeep and Rana combined really well to keep the Royals down to 160, which, as we later found it, was not enough to contain a powerful Kolkata batting unit. They didn't even need Russell tonight. There could even be some concerns for Rahane when it comes to his new ball bowlers. They don't have the pace to blow out someone like, say Narine, who comes out slogging. Time for the presentations..
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