KKR vs RR: Kartik and Russell's excellent innings, KKR set a target of 170 runs in front of the Royals

In the eleventh season of the Indian Premier League, Kolkata Knight Riders has set a target of 170 runs to win against Rajasthan Royals. KKR was struggling at 51 for four at one time but after the captain Dinesh Karthik's half-century and another smashing innings from Andre Russell, the team scored a challenging score of 169 for seven wickets.

Karthik then stepped on the crease when the score was 24 runs on three wickets. He scored 38 runs in 38 balls with four fours and two sixes. Russell again played a long shot in the death overs and scored an unbeaten 49 in 25 balls including three fours and five sixes. In addition to these two, Shubhaman Gill contributed 28 runs. KKR scored 85 runs in the last six overs.

On behalf of the Royals, Krishnappa Gautam, Jopra Archer and Ben Lagin took two wickets each. Ish Sodhi bowled economically with only 15 runs in four overs.

There was moisture and bounce on the pitch of the Eden Gardens and in addition, KKR batsmen looked hasty. This was the reason that in the first four overs, three of his batsmen, Sunil Narine (four), Robin Uthappa (three) and Nitish Rana (three) were in the pavilion.

Off-spinner Gautam stole the other ball off Narine with his clever bowling. After this, he caught Uthappa on his own ball while Archer got Rana playing the shot from the wrong timing.

There was great responsibility on Karthik. He made a good start by which the team managed to reach 46 runs till the powerplay, although this KKR is the lowest score of the first six overs in this season.

Chris Lynn (18 off 22 balls) held one end for eight overs but Shreyas Gopal's googly was beyond his understanding on which he got the catch to the bowler. Ajinkya Rahane hit the wrist spinners Gopal (34 runs in four overs) and Ish Sodhi (15 runs in four overs) from both ends, who kept a check on the run speed.

When such a score was 144 after 84 runs, Gill and Karthik added 20 runs in Gopal's next over to speed the run speed. Archer, however, caught Gill behind the wicket in the next over.

Karthik hit his half-century off 35 balls with the help of Jaydev Unadkat, but in the next over, he got the catch in the air.

Russell, who opened the account with a six on Archer, was upset by Sodhi but he played it openly in front of medium pace bowlers. Against Jayadev Unadkat, Laglin and Archer, he presented a splendid sample to his power hitting.