In the second match of the day, it was Rajasthan Royals who welcomed KKR at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur. It has been a tough time for the host as they won 1 game out of 4. Ajinkya Rahane must have been in huge pressure as the home crowd wanted them to win this match.
Visiting team KKR won the toss and elected to bowl first. The host started in horror fashion as they lost the wicket of Rahane early. Jos Buttler was then joined by the Australian batsman Steven Smith. Both were playing sensibly and tried to build a partnership for the second wicket. Both added 72 runs before Buttler was dismissed in the 12th over by Harry Gurney, who was making his IPL debut. Due to the slowness in the pitch, none of the Royals’ batsman looked comfortable. Smith brought up his half-century in 44 deliveries. And at the end of their inning RR only managed to score 139-3. Smith scored 73 runs off 59 deliveries with 7 boundaries and a six.
The visitor started off speedily as the duo of Lynn-Narine put the pressure back on the bowlers. In the second over of the match, Narine scored staggering 22 runs in the over with 4 boundaries and a six. In a third over KULKARNI bowled a slower delivery to Narine and Rahul Tripathi dropped a sitter at the point and later they paid price for that. In a pitch where Rajasthan’s batsmen weren’t able to score quick runs, both the openers scored blistering 84 runs in 8 overs. The luck favors the brave, That’s what happened when Lynn got the inside edge and that richocheted on the stumps and the ball raced to the fine leg fence thereafter. The chase was looking very easy as both the openers set an easy platform for the rest of the batsmen. Before Narine departed, he scored 47 off just 25 deliveries. In his innings, he scored 6 boundaries and 3 huge sixes. Later, Lynn scored his maiden half-century of the season and got out. He supported Narine wonderfully and scored 6 fours and 3 sixes. Both the wickets belonged to Shreyas Gopal. Later, Robin Uthappa took responsibility and help KKR to chase the target with 37 balls remaining.
For his economical bowling spell of 4-0-25-2, Harry Gurney was adjourned man of the match. The visitor clinched the victory easily and put themselves at the top of the table with 4 wins and healthy net run-rate of +1.06.