Jaiswal, Chahal shine in RR’s dominant win over KKR

Multiple records tumbled at the Eden Gardens on Thursday as the Rajasthan Royals (RR) outplayed Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) with bat and ball to keep their hopes of reaching the IPL 2023 playoffs alive.

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Yuzvendra Chahal registered his third four-fer of the season after RR opted to field, ensuring the KKR batters struggled in their own backyard and crawled their way to a sub-par 149/8. In-form opener Yashasvi Jaiswal then blasted an unbeaten 98 to setup one of the most one-sided victories in the IPL in recent years.

Yashasvi Jaiswal smashes fastest fifty in IPL history during KKR-RR clash at Eden Gardens

RR’s Yuzvendra Chahal breaks Dwayne Bravo’s all-time record during 4/25 against KKR in Kolkata

Along the way, both Chahal and Jaiswal scripted records; while the wily leg-spinner went past legendary Chennai Super Kings (CSK) all-rounder Dwayne Bravo with the first of his four wickets of the day to become the highest wicket-taker in the history of the IPL, stretching his tally to 187 at the end of the innings.

Jaiswal, who had only recently brought up his maiden T20 hundred at his home ground of the Wankhede Stadium, took the attack to the Knight Riders bowlers from the word go and ended up completing his half-century in just 13 balls, breaking the record for the fastest IPL fifty that had previously belonged to KKR’s Pat Cummins.

KKR experience a familiar wobble

And it wasn’t just with the bat and ball that RR had dominated KKR at the Eden Gardens — they were also the far superior side when it came to ground fielding. It was, after all, a couple of superb catches by Shimron Hetmyer and Sandeep Sharma off Trent Boult’s bowling in the powerplay that got the ball rolling for the Royals, getting rid of the two explosive openers in Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz early.

The double-strike resulted in a 37-run powerplay for the Knight Riders, who needed a solid counter-attack from the third-wicket pair of Venkatesh Iyer and skipper Nitish Rana to bring them back on their feet. And while the pair were a little cautious early on in their partnership, an 18-run over from Ravichandran Ashwin which included back-to-back sixes for Iyer got them going around the halfway mark of their innings.

The momentum was starting to shift towards Kolkata around that staged and could’ve been the launchpad for an explosive finish towards the end when Chahal brought Rajasthan back in the contest by getting rid of Rana, grabbing the much-awaited 184th wicket in the IPL in the process.

He would prove expensive in his second over that yielded 15 runs, but would more than make up for it with a double-strike in his third, removing Iyer for 57 and Shardul Thakur two balls later. Chahal had one last trick left up his sleeve in his final over, and used it to get rid of the dangerous Rinku Singh to complete his third four-fer of the season.

The Jaiswal show

If the previous season had belong to Jos Buttler, it is young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal who is more than living up to his billing this season. Just days after notching up his maiden T20 hundred at the Wankhede Stadium — a venue that is his home in domestic cricket — Jaiswal would produce another blinder on Thursday. While the century against Mumbai Indians went in vain, this one would blow the KKR attack to smithereens and setup the kind of victory that RR needed to bounce back after losing five of their last six matches.

More than half of the battle for the Royals was won inside the powerplay; the Knight Riders had collected a meagre 37 runs during the fielding restrictions. The Royals ended up scoring 40 in just two overs, and that is after Andre Russell ran opener Jos Buttler out with a direct hit at the non-striker’s end. KKR skipper Rana decided to introduce himself in the first over, perhaps taking the gamble of taking the ball away from the left-handed Jaiswal with his off-spin. The result: a 26-run opening over that read 6, 6, 4, 4, 2, 4.

Once the Royals crossed the 50-run mark inside three overs, it was always going to be their game to lose. And it was a question of how quickly the Royals would get past the finish line, and not if, and whether Jaiswal had the kind of support from the other end that he needed to bring up a second century in four outings.

“I think the run rate was the only thing in our mind, me and Sanju bhai were only talking about finishing the game quickly,” Player of the Match Jaiswal said during the post-match presentation, talking about his and Samson’s approach during the chase.

Until the halfway stage, it appeared as if Jaiswal was batting on a surface entirely different from what his partner Samson and the KKR batters had batted on, for the RR skipper too was going at run-a-ball at the halfway stage batting on 21. Fortunately for the Royals, the Keralite managed to shift gears by smashing Anukul Roy for three sixes in the following over to put the visiting side on the cusp of victory.

Samson even showed the leader’s touch towards the end, shuffling to his left to prevent a stray delivery from Suyash Sharma from going down leg for five wides when just three were needed to win and Jaiswal was six short of his ton. Jaiswal, though, would collect the winning runs in the form of a boundary off Thakur’s bowling at the start of the 14th, and fall two short of his ton, though Samson’s gesture is something that he will not be forgetting in a long time.

While KKR’s playoff hopes have taken a massive hit with the lopsided defeat after two consecutive wins, RR suddenly find themselves at the third spot on the table with the second-best Net Run Rate among all teams. And come Sunday, when the RR are up against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Samson and Co will certainly be backing themselves to deliver the goods again.

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