STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsYet another season of agony came to an end for Rajasthan Royals and they had kept their worst for the last match of IPL 2021. As for Kolkata Knight Riders, they have enhanced their chance of qualifying to the play-offs by a massive margin of win. Mumbai Indians have a mountainous task ahead of them in their encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad as they need to win by a margin of 171 runs to go above Kolkata’s net run rate and qualify.
After winning the toss, Sanju Samson sent Kolkata to set the target. The opening pair of Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer were off to a steady start. The pair posted 79 runs for the first wicket before Iyer was dismissed in the eleventh over. Nitish Rana coming in at number three, played a cameo by scoring 12 runs off five balls. Rahul Tripathi joined hands with Gill and was involved in a 23-ball 41-run partnership. Collective performances from others saw Kolkata post 171/4. On a slow Sharjah pitch that is equivalent to a 220.
In reply, Rajasthan batsmen come up with yet another dismal performance. Within the field restrictions they were reduced to four wickets for 17 runs. At one stage, Rajasthan at 35 for seven were on-course to break the lowest total record set by Royal Challengers Bangalore (49) in 2017 against the same team. However, Rahul Tewatia fought his way through by scoring a 36-ball 44. With his wicket being the final nail in the coffin, Rajasthan surrendered to a score of 85. Shivam Mavi starred with ball by bagging his best IPL figures (4/21). There were few notable stats from Match 54 and here is a list of few:
Kolkata's acceleration in the middle-overs
After a steady start of 34/0 in the powerplay, the time spent on the crease helped the Kolkata batsmen to display an array of strokes all around the ground to score 93 runs in the middle overs (7-15). Between overs 7-10, Kolkata batsmen scored 35 runs. In the next five overs (11-15), their batsmen scored 58 runs at a run rate of 11.6. Mind you, this match was in Sharjah. Kolkata had won their match in this stage itself. Rajasthan fell short by eight runs after batting 16 overs to the runs Kolkata scored in their nine-over phase. The 93-runs scored by Kolkata is the second most by a team in this phase in the UAE leg of IPL 2021.
KKR post the highest total in Sharjah
One of the biggest talking points in this edition of the IPL has been the surface on offer at Sharjah. While it was batting friendly last season, the sluggish wickets in the second leg of the tournament has made run-scoring a lot difficult in the competition. However, with a place in the playoffs up for grabs, Kolkata batsmen produced a fearless brand of cricket that was led by Gill's half-century. On a venue which, crossing the 150-mark itself has been a difficult feat this season, Kolkata posted a commendable total of 171/4 in the first innings. This is the highest total at Sharjah this season. Earlier in the league stage, Bangalore scored 164/7 against Punjab Kings, which was the highest at the venue.
Knights dismantle RR in the powerplay
Chasing 173 runs for the win in their final league match, the Royals were derailed in the powerplay courtesy of a sublime bowling performance by Kolkata. While Shakib Al Hasan picked up the wicket of in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal, Mavi and Lockie Ferguson followed it up with wickets of skipper Sanju Samson, Liam Livingstone and Anuj Rawat to dent the Royals to 13/4 inside the first four overs. Rajasthan failed to recover from there and scored 17/4 in the first six overs. This is their second-lowest score in the powerplay stage in the history of the IPL. In 2009, they endured a torrid time against Bangalore and scored 14/2 in the powerplay, their lowest.
Collapsed like a house of cards
The Rajasthan batting outfit never looked like they had the intention of chasing this down. The visuals looked more like they were just swinging at everything. Jaiswal heaved off the first ball he faced and was dismissed trying to reverse sweep in the third ball of the first over. Skipper Samson, suffered a tame dismissal and Liam Livingstone perished trying to hoick a back-of-a-length delivery. There was never a recovery from there on. They were down to 35 for seven and things were looking really bad until Tewatia’s innings of 44. Thanks to the all-rounders contribution, Rajasthan suffered a demoralizing defeat, but not their worst. The score of 85 is their third lowest total in the IPL.
A royal defeat
The last two league matches played by Rajasthan in this edition of IPL, was a clear indication as to why they are in the seventh spot and have the worst net run rate (-0.993). In back-to-back matches their batsmen failed to post 100+ runs on board. 90/9 against Mumbai Indians and 85 all-out against Kolkata. If their match against Mumbai saw their lowest score after batting 20 overs, this match witnessed their biggest defeat in the IPL. The defeat by 86 runs, is their biggest by runs margin. Previously, against Bangalore in their opening match of 2009, they had suffered a 75-run loss, the biggest then.
