Kolkata Knight Riders crushed Rajasthan Royals by eight wickets at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday.
Chris Lynn’s half century, and fearless knocks by Sunil Narine and Robin Uthappa got Dinesh Karthik led KKR to the the top of the IPL 2019 points table. KKR have won four out of the five matches they played.
KKR after winning the toss opted to bowl, they restricted Rajasthan to 139/3 despite Steve Smith’s unbeaten knock of 73 runs. KKR batsmen chased the target in 13.5 overs.
West Indian Narine got 47, while Chris Lynn picked 50, the duo shared 91 runs for the opening stand in 8.3 overs.
The win was the best of this season in terms of number of balls to spare.
When Rajasthan Royals were put to bat, the slow track at Sawai Man Singh stadium looked like a difficult one with the ball not coming on to the bat easily, but the KKR batsmen made the nature of the track irrelevant with runs and boundaries came in thick and fast.
The stadium was engulfed by a sandstorm before the game, but in the end the visitors decimated their opponents at home. Robin Uthappa gave the finishing touches with 26 not out off 16 balls as KKR reached 140 for 2 in 13.5 overs.
The home crowd was stunned as Rahul Tripathi dropped Narine in the first ball of the fourth over bowled by Kulkarni and then Lynn survived despite an inside edge off his bat hitting the stumps. The inside edge glanced the leg stump but did not dislodge the bails off.
Earlier, Australian batsman Steve Smith struck his first half century of this IPL season as he remained not out on 73 off 59 deliveries to anchor Rajasthan Royals to the 139 for 3.