Kuldeep spun RR to gain two points for KKR

It was Jos Buttler, who again provided Rajasthan Royals a flying start but this time he couldn't repeat his heroic knock as Kuldeep Yadav's 4 for 20 helped Kolkata Knight Riders to beat Rajasthan Royals by 6-wickets at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Tuesday (May 15). With this win, KKR have strengthened their chances to qualify for the playoffs.

Buttler-Tripathi started in fifth gear



After putting to bat first, Jos Buttler and Rahul Tripathi nearly took the game away from KKR. After watchful first over of Mavi, Rahul decided to go after Prasidh Krishna in next over where he hit a six and followed up with three back to back boundaries. Tripathi collected 19 from Prasidh over before Buttler scored 28 runs from Shivam Mavi's over including 2 sixes and 4 fours. Tripathi continued this momentum with a boundary to Sunil Narine in 4th over and collects 10 from that over. The duo put on the 63-run stand before Tripathi fell in trying to play pull to Andre Russell.

Kuldeep and poor shot selection scripted famous collapse of RR

After scoring 68 for 1 in first six overs, Royals were looking all set for the big score before Kuldeep Yadav destroyed RR's batting line-up. It was also the poor shot selections hurt RR as skipper Ajinkya Rahane bowled out by Yadav in trying to play the reverse sweep. Jos Buttler, who was playing well, didn't learn from Rahane's mistake and went for the same shot but could only manage the top edge and caught out Searles at the short third man. Buttler's wicket was massive knowing Royals' middle order weren't in form.



Buttler was believed to be the sole person responsible for RR's late resurgence and what followed was proof of that as Narine and Kuldeep ran through over the out-of-form middle order with their variations. RR kept losing wickets as Sanju Samson misjudged the length of Narine, Stuart Binny failed to read a googly from Yadav's hand and Ben Stokes beat in flight as he chipped a return catch.

Reducing 107 for 7, Jaydev Unadkat swinging a few shots to give RR some shorts of target to defend with 26* off 18 balls including 3 fours and a six.

Stokes fight back but Karthik steers KKR home



Defending 142, RR started with Krishanppa Gowtham with new ball against Narine knowing that spin has been his biggest strength. Narine accepted this challenge and sent first four balls 4,6,4,6 and kick-start KKR's chase.

However, Ben Stokes pulled things back and sent Narine back to dressing room. In his very next over he got Robin Uthappa out on the short ball at the deep backward square to ignite RR hopes. But as the pitch became much easier in the second half of the innings, Dinesh Karthik 41* off 31 balls along with Chris Lynn's 45 off 42 balls comfortably guided his team through the home with two overs to spare despite Stokes' brilliant spell of 4-1-15-3.

Kuldeep Yadav awarded Man Of The Match for his match-changing spell of 4-0-20-1.

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