IPL 2019: Twitter reacts as Kolkata Knight Riders thrash Rajasthan Royals by 8 wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders' only loss in IPL 2019 came against Delhi Capitals in a Super Over after the teams ended up with a score of 185 in 20 overs. While Andre Russell's insanity helped KKR to assert dominance in the first four matches, Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn powered KKR to victory in their fifth match against Rajasthan.
After winning the toss, Kolkata opted to field first. KKR started off the proceedings with Piyush Chawla and Prasidh Krishna. While Chawla bowled economically, Krishna dismissed Ajinkya Rahane off his very first ball.
The breakthrough brought Steve Smith and Jos Buttler together. A disciplined Kolkata bowling attack did allow the two overseas batsmen to break the shackles. They had to work hard to add 76 runs for the second wicket in 64 balls.
Harney Gurney, on his debut, was exceptional with the ball. His slower ones tested the batsmen and did allow the batsmen to score runs freely.
With the pressure mounting, Jos Buttler and Rahul Tripathi tried to change gears but ended up giving their wickets to the debutant, who was the man of the match for his 2 wickets.
Even a settled Steve Smith could not score at a faster pace. While Smith's 67 runs came off 59 balls, Stokes struggled to score runs and ended up making just 7 runs off 14 balls. As a result, RR could only a target of 140.
During the chase, the partnership between Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn sealed the deal for KKR. Narine and Lynn added 91 runs for the first wicket and made the chase one-sided.
While Narine scored 47 runs from 25 balls, Lynn took 32 balls to score 50 overs. Both the batsmen got dismissed before chasing down the total but the next two batsmen ensured that they did not lose any more wicket. Thanks to their dominating win, KKR sit on top of the IPL Points Table.
Here's how Twitter reacted to Kolkata's win over Rajasthan: