KKR and RR went head-to-head in a thrilling clash at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in another potential knockout for the second match of the day. The loser of this match will be completely disqualified from the knockout race but the winner will also not qualify for the knockout round. However, the winner survives and their playoff fate will depend on the remaining 2 matches.
Steve Smith won the pitch and put KKR on a surface that threatened to slow down with the course of the rounds. However, the RR that intends to exploit the dew will appear more in the second half of the game. As expected, KKR brought in Andre Russell for their final encounter at the tournament stage – a final game to balance an already erratic side in this tournament.
KKR started the important match in a pathetic way. Nitish Rana was eliminated early because he couldn’t keep up with Jofra Archer’s speed. Archer looks completely unplayable during his first few times in the power game as he spits fire to burn both Gill and Tewatia. Luckily, both kids survived the spell and were extremely relieved when his first 2 passes were complete.
The first piece of inexplicable strategy from Smith tonight comes in the game of power. Even after learning that both Gill and Tripathi were being jolted by sheer speed, he didn’t use Kartik Tyagi in the power game. The U19 star was once a valuable pitcher for RR in power play, but he lost to Shreyas Gopal, who conceded 17 goals to give momentum to KKR in power play. strong. The fact that KKR scored 55 points in the powerhouse, even though Jofra only conceded 3 times in his 2 passes, says a lot about how RR bowling is mostly about Archer.
Gill and Tripathi played very important shots for KKR tonight as they consolidated at a brisk pace, scoring 70 points from the first eight rounds. Once again, however, Gill was unable to shift gears effectively, as he hit a deep center hole in front of Tewatia’s bowling ball. Narine, Tripathi and DK leave in quick succession and suddenly KKR is staring at a sub-score. Once again, KKR had to play catch after a stellar start.
But tonight is the time for KKR’s newest rookies to show their mettle. From the dead, Morgan and Russell attacked the opposition. Morgan first looked at himself in the tournament when he tore through Shreyas Gopal in 21 runs. There is no question that Smith kept Archer for Russell. However, Russell also showed nuances of his last year’s form, as he sent Archer for two consecutive sixth innings that threw Smith’s plans into chaos.
The duo of Russell and Archer took 46 in 3 rounds to bring KKR to 146 in 15 rounds. That blitzkrieg changed KKR’s game. Before the duo could deal more damage to RR, Kartik Tyagi knocked out Russell with an excellent wide yorker. Kartik Tyagi, as a pitcher made a big impression on me at this IPL and we hope to see more of him in the years to come.
KKR posted a total of 194 of their allotted 20 overtime episodes thanks to some late fireworks from Morgan and Cummins. Morgan knocks out teammate Ben Stokes as the left-hander scores 21 points from 19order end. The KKR captain eventually finished with 68 from 35 balls and made sure he gave his pitchers a good total to defend.
The second half talked about Pat Cummins a lot. There has been a lot of talk about him being the most worthless buyer for KKR, as he failed to pick up balls for the men in purple. Tonight, he started the half in terrible form as well as conceding 19 of his first five balls.
As I’ve said again and again, cricket is a wonderfully balanced game. After conceding 19 from his first 5 balls, Pat Cummins picked up 4 penalties in power play to tear down RR’s top order. Cummins used the motion of the seam to his advantage, like Bumrah did yesterday, and made it difficult for the men in pink.
However, out of these 4 Cummins sockets, one of them belongs to DK. To say the least, that Stokes catch was incredible. The fact that DK was caught on the wrong foot and had to fly to block that attack made the match even more epic. The catch does indeed bring back memories of Durban 2007 when DK caught the same Graeme Smith at 3rank to slide.
Having lost half of the power game due to some indisciplined pitches by Mavi and Cummins, RR lost hope of a win pretty early on. Smith, Parag, Uthappa and Stokes all fell to the breathless Australian and KKR wins, as early as 6order end of the match. Varun Chakravarthy scalp the only person able to pull the jailbreak for RR- Jos Butler shortly after to end RR’s journey at this tournament.
KKR won the match with 60 runs to survive the competition. Varun Chakravarthy finished with 2 for 20. It should be remembered that in an illustrious bowling team, featuring Narine, Cummins and Russell, Varun has been KRK’s top catcher this season with 17 catches. We will indeed see him again soon in an Indian shirt.
