IPL 2020: Match 54: KKR moves to the 4th spot

With Chennai Superkings winning their last match against Kings XI Punjab, the 4th spot opened up for both Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals who met each other in Dubai yesterday. KKR has been very inconsistent this season and they needed their foreign recruits to come big at the business end of the tournament. Rajasthan Royals on the other hand were coming into this match with 2 back to back victories with Ben Stokes being in magnificent touch. A do or die battle awaited all IPL fans yesterday night which was expected to be a cracker of a contest. So how did it go yesterday?

Here are my 5 points highlights of yesterday’s match.

1. Eoin Morgan

The new captain of KKR was yet to fire in this year’s IPL. He played some stunning knocks but the consistency was lacking. Secondly, a strange policy didn’t allow him to play the maximum deliveries with him not coming in at number 4. Yesterday KKR had a decent start but 2 wickets in the 9th over suddenly opened up things for Rajasthan Royals. Morgan strode in at 74/3 and had a job in hand to guide his team to a sizeable total. KKR had a very bad net run rate so they were under extreme pressure to put up a very big score because that gave them the maximum chance to qualify for the playoffs. With more wickets falling around him, Eoin Morgan couldn’t take undue risks but to his credit, he didn’t allow the pressure to build up. He opened up in the last few overs and started timing the ball aplomb. The six that he hit off Stokes just showed how talented he is. That one over of marvelous hitting took the winds out of the Rajasthan Royals’ attack. KKR was wrong by not batting him consistently at number 4. He finished with 68 off 35 balls with 6 sixes to take KKR to a very sizeable total of 192.

2. Andre Russell

Andre Russell has been a pale shadow of his usual self in this year’s IPL. One of the reasons why KKR struggled this year because of the lack of form of Russell. He was not 100% fit yesterday but he played only because it was a do or die match for the team. He walked in 99 for 5 with KKR struggling big time once again in putting up a good score. Any more wicket at that stage and Rajsthan Royals would have been all over KKR. But Russell was in no mood to fail. He did get out after scoring only 25 but he scored them in just 10 balls and his innings ensured that KKR will have a sizeable score to defend. If KKR qualifies for the playoffs then the innings played by Russell will give them a lot of heart and belief that they can compete in this tournament.

3. Rahul Tewatia

Rahul Tewatia has been one of the surprise finds of this year’s IPL. Nobody really knew much about him but he single-handedly won a few matches for Rajasthan Royals. His grand performance with the bat rubbed on to his bowling too and over the last few matches, his bowling improved by leaps and bounds. Yesterday he was taken for a few runs in the first over but he came back strongly to pick up the wickets of Shubhman Gill and Sunil Naraine. He finished with 3/25 in his 4 overs which was a great performance and till the time he was bowling it didn’t look like KKR would be able to build up such a big score. Unfortunately, his fancied colleagues didn’t have a good day. With the bat, he tried his bit but it was a mountain to climb yesterday after the top order exploded for Rajasthan Royals.

4. Catches win matches

Though KKR scored a good enough total, they still needed to pick up wickets to keep Rajasthan Royals under pressure. Dinesh Karthik has been having a very wretched IPL this year with the bat. Yesterday also he got out in the very first ball to put his team under pressure. But behind the stumps, he still remains one of the best wicket-keepers in the country. He showed that why in the very third over of the Rajasthan Royals’ chase. He threw himself to his left as the ball flew off Ben Stokes’ bat to pull off an absolute stunner to derail the Rajasthan chase. He picked up another 3 catches yesterday to finish with 4 catches. His heroics behind the stumps yesterday took him ahead of MS Dhoni with maximum dismissals for a wicketkeeper in IPL.

5. Pat Cummins

Kolkata Knight Riders acquired the services of Pat Cummins because they needed a world-class fast bowler who could pick up wickets in the power plays. To his credit, he didn’t go for runs and has been one of the top performers when it comes to economy rate in the first 6 overs. But what he lacked throughout the tournament were wickets. He was unable to pick up top-order wickets consistently. Yesterday KKR had a big score to defend but they needed wickets upfront because 3 of the best batsmen in world cricket were in the opposition ranks. Unfortunately, Pat Cummins got his line absolutely wrong in the first over. He went for 19 runs in the first 5 balls that he bowled. The 6th ball was once again on the leg stump and Uthappa could have hit it anywhere in the field but his shot when straight to the deep square leg fielder and this gave the lifeline to Pat Cummins and KKR both. There was no looking back for Pat Cummins thereafter as he took out another 3 wickets in his next 2 overs to leave Rajasthan Royals reeling at 35/5 from where they never recovered and handed a big victory to KKR. He finished with 4/34 and was adjudicated as the Man of the Match.

A 60 runs victory for KKR took them to the 4th spot. The big margin helped in their net run rate but is it good enough would only be known tomorrow and the day after as Delhi Capitals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad slog out amongst themselves to push KKR out of the top 4.

Rajasthan Royals bow out of IPL 2020 and finished last not a perfect end to the tournament. This has been a very closely fought IPL because you never see a team winning 6 matches and still finishing last. This is the beauty of IPL because all teams are evenly matched.

So what do you think? Will KKR reach the playoffs? 

Share this...

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin