IPL 2022 Live Score, KKR vs RR: Kolkata Knight Riders lose Aaron Finch early in 153-run chase

Iyer goes for a pull off Boult, there is an audible nick as the ball goes past the batter and into the hands of the keeper. The umpire actually calls it wide and Samson reviews it immediately. Replays show a clear spike in the snicko when the ball passes the gloves so thats it for Iyer. 

Iyer charges down the track to Chahal and clears the long on boundary. That makes the partnership worth 51 runs off 37 balls. 

Rana hits a four off the third ball of the over to make it 4, 6, 4. Reverse sweep for the first four, slog sweep for the six and then another reverse sweep for the second four. The batters then take two runs to finish off the over. KKR 75/2 in 11 overs. 

Rana takes on Ashwin! He first breaks out a reverse sweep to send Ashwin over the keeper’s head. Then a conventional slog sweep to send Ashwin over deep square leg.  

First timeout of the innings is taken. No boundaries for 17 deliveries now. While there haven’t been too many dot balls as well, one of these two will have to try and go big now, unless they believe they can keep up a run rate of nearly 10 in the last 9 overs of the match. 

Ashwin and Chahal alternating now and the required rate is creeping above 9 now. Both Nitish Rana and Shreyas Iyer have good records against Ashwin, wonder if they will target him at some point. For now, both are content with trying to take a maximum of two off every ball. 

KKR 32/2. They aren’t too far behind where RR was at this moment, except that they have lost an extra wicket. But the strength of RR’s bowling attack and KKR’s batting weaknesses mans that Samson’s side have their noses slightly in front at the moment.  

Indrajith becomes a bit of a victim of his own shot. He ramps Prasidh over short fine leg off the third ball of the fifth and so the fielder gets pushed back to fine leg. Then comes the short ball and Inrajith miscues the pull, Ashwin is the fine leg fielder and he gets there in time to take a straightforward catch. 

Indrajith c Ashwin b Prasidh 15 (16); KKR 32/2 in 5.4 overs

Run rate is hovering around 5 runs an over which is well below par at the moment. But these two would be prioritising conserving wickets and if they can get a good partnership going well, that will be half the job done for KKR. 

146kph scorcher from Kuldeep. Length ball from outside off, Finch looks to force it through the offside, the ball takes his inside edge and smashes onto the stumps. That is one ugly dismissal and Finch wouldn’t want to see that again. The contradiction continues, Finch is one of the all-time greats for Australia in limited overs cricket and has even got some big scores in India while playing for his country. But he continues to struggle in the IPL. 

Finch b Kuldeep Sen 4 (7), 16/1 in 3.1 overs

He is fine at the end of it all so this is turns out to be one of the funnier incidents of the season. Indrajith pushes a full ball to mid-on and both batters go for a tight single. Prasidh Krishna picks it up and it is unclear which end of the pitch he was aiming at because he gets Trent Boult, who was at the end of his delivery stride and standing almost at the halfway point of the pitch. Boult had seen that throw coming and jumped in reflex which meant that his shoe took most of the impact. The two batters run a second and they all have a laugh about it in the end. 

Indrajith gets a four off the second ball of the second over bowled by Prasidh Krishna.  Just a single comes after that off the last ball. 

It is Baba Indrajith who opens this time with Aaron Finch for KKR, Trent Boult has the ball in his hands for RR. 

Gavaskar says that Parag or Hetmyer could have been brought in ahead of Karun Nair. “People get these labels. ‘Finisher’. It means you have to come only in 14th or 15th over, that’s not right. The man is in form, even if a wicket falls in the 11th over, get him out there”. 

“Way below par” says Matthew Hayden in the commentary box. Hetmyer picked the slack, as did Samson towards the end of his innings. The fact remains that the competition that is coming up next is between a bowling attack that is very much in form against an unsettled batting lineup. Wonder where this one will go. 

Ashwin takes a single off the first ball of the 20th and then Hetmyer sends the second to the boundary. He has made 23 runs in 9 balls. 

No more boundaries after those first two sixes but some smart running and one more wide makes this exactly the kind of penultimate over RR needed. They are now 142/5 going into the last over. 

Half volley from Southee and Hetmyer swings again, this time the ball soars over the long on boundary for another maximum. That’s back to back sixes to start the over. The next ball is called wide so that’s 13 runs off the first two balls of the 19th. 

What a start to the 19th by Hetmyer. Southee digs it in outside off and Hetmyer pulls it over the longer side of the boundary for a six! RR need many more of that. 

Rajasthan Royals are 122/5. Hayden had said earlier that an ideal score would be somewhere around 170 so RR are miles away from that. Wonder if they have read the pitch differently.  

What a catch that is from Rinku Singh. Full delivery outside off from Mavi, Samson takes an almighty swing and the ball goes deep into the night sky above the Wankhede Stadium. But it hasn’t got the distance and Rinku Singh does well to take that catch right along the boundary ropes at deep midwicket. 

Samson c Rinku b Mavi 54 (49); RR 115/5 in 17.1 overs

And Riyan Parag falls while trying another big shot. Slow from Southee that lands on a good length, Parag pulls and it goes straight into the hands of Anukul.

 Parag c Anukul b Southee 19 (12), RR 115/4 in 17 overs

Parag pulls away and sends it soaring into the stands. Southee had bowled two dots and so there is still only seven of the over with one left in the 17th. 

But he has a run cancelled because the umpire had given it out. Samson heaves across the line of Southee, it is just the bowler who appeals and yet the umpire gives it out. Samson reviews straightaway and replays show that the ball was missing the stumps. But the batters have to cross back because the run has been cancelled. 

Narine bowls out his fourth over and gives away just three runs. That was the 16th over of the innings and Narine has given away just 19 runs in his spell. 

Another error in the field and this time it is Aaron Finch. Riyan Parag manages to put it over third man, Finch seems to have it covered at deep third man, bends down while running to pick the ball up but it slips right through his fingers to trickle to the boundary. He kicks the air in disgust and that spoils a good 15th over from Umesh. RR 105/3 off 15. 

17th IPL half century for Samson and he has got there in 38 balls. This has been quite a good innings from Samson with RR not getting too much from Buttler today. 

Nair pulls and tries to clear the biggest boundary of the ground, Rinku Singh comes forward at first before backpedalling and taking the catch high above his had. Unlucky 13 written all over that dismissal for Nair. 

Karun Nair c Rinku Singh b Anukul Roy 13 (13), RR 90/3 in 13.1 overs  

Karun Nair finally gets a move on. Full length delivery from Southee, Karun makes room and sends it to the boundary. 

Have some of that, says Samson. Not too much width from Mavi but Samson times this cut perfectly and sends it behind point. 

Samson is looking good here. Mavi sends it full outside off and Samson powers it over the off side in field and sends it to the boundaryu. He moves to 36 off 29

Buttler had decided to tee off and Mavi does brilliantly well to hold on at long-on. Buttler had hit this with some venom, it was flat and hurtling towards the boundary. Mavi runs to his right and times his jump perfectly to pluck the ball out of the air. 

Buttler c Mavi b Southee 22 (25), RR 55/2 in 8.3 overs

Streaky one from Buttler and that is another poor effort from Narine. He casually sticks out a foot at the boundary despite having reached where the ball was and it just bounces past over the ropes. 

Not sure what the issue is but Samson is flat on his back and the RR physio is getting him to do a few stretches. It all lasts only a few seconds, which is good news for the Royals, and Samson gets back up and puts his gloves and helmet back. He will be facing Tim Southee now. RR 49/1 after 8 overs. 

Buttler skies the fifth delivery of the seventh over bowled by Shivam Mavi and it lands in no-man’s land behind the bowler. Two big fast bowlers Tim Southee and Umesh Yadav are the ones running in from long on and long off and both are well outside the frame when the ball lands. 

Samson with the first maximum of the evening. Anukul tosses the ball around middle stump, Samson makes room, goes inside out and sends it over extra cover. Perfect end to a powerplay that hasn’t produced too many runs for RR, they are 38/1. 

Back to back boundaries for Samson but he is fortunate to be still standing there. Southee is at mid-off and Samson’s shot goes just beyond his reach. In fact, replays show that he had manage to get his finger tips to it. 

Umesh Yadav made to the bowl the fourth ball of the fifth over again because that was a no-ball. He hurls it wide and Samson takes a slash at it and it goes behind for a boundary. 

It took him six deliveries but finally, Samson manages to pierce the offside field. Anukul Roy threw himself after the ball but could not stop it from reaching the boundary.  

What a catch that is from Umesh and he provides the breakthrough once again for KKR. Padikkal had hit it straight back in the air at some pace. Umesh moved towards the right in his follow through, sticks out his right hand and takes the catch. 

Padikkal c &b Umesh 2 (5), RR 7/1 in 2.1

The newboy has been handed the ball straightaway and does well. Just three runs from that over, all coming in singles. So both Buttler and Padikkal are off the mark but there have been no fireworks yet. 

Sunil Narine at mid-on has to take the blame for this. Just a gentle push from Buttler and a single may have been the intended result but Narine leisurely comes jogging in and the ball passes him by. Tim Southee made a brilliant effort in the end at the boundary but is only able to nudge the ball to the ropes with his hands. 

Jos Buttler and Devdutt Padikkal in the middle for Rajasthan Royals, Umesh Yadav has the ball in his hands for KKR. Here we go!

Rajasthan Royals are challenging the notion of “win the toss, win the match” this season with their captain Sanju Samson winning the toss just once throughout this season. And yet, they have won six of the matches in which they have lost the toss. 

Shimron Hetmyer has been talking to the host broadcasters: “For me, it is just about giving myself a chance. For the first two years of my career, I didn’t give myself a chance to get set. But now I just wanted to give myself a couple of balls to see what the pitch is doing. My wife is my biggest coach and it was something we came up with. I tried to bring that into my game. I want to learn how to reverse sweep from Buttler. I tried it in practice by I keep getting out. Even the scoop. Batting looks much easier from the outside. I love playing here. Always a nice ground for the batters. Thank God I am not a bowler. It has been a great ground for us as well.”

Karun Nair is set to play his 150th T20 match today, as it turns out. Trent Boult had hyped him up recently, saying that he can hit anything that the New Zealand pace spearhead can throw at him. 

Nothing different today, looking forward to winning some tosses going forward. In this format the margin for error is very small. We have put in a great standard. Nothing much to improve on. We have Karun Nair coming in for Mitchell in this game. We are making a few changes looking at the conditions, and we feel Karun Nair will be a better option against tonight’s opponents.

“Seems like a used wicket. Considering the dew factor it helps us in the second innings. We have lost many close games. The chat is always been positive cricket. We need to play fearless cricket. We have two changes. Roy comes in for Venky and Mavi comes in. It’s important to have the right combination. We are trying to give as many matches as possible to the players, but it’s also important to get the right combinations.”

Jos Buttler, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson(wicketkeeper/captain), Karun Nair, Shimron Hetmyer, Riyan Parag, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Sen

Aaron Finch, Sunil Narine, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Baba Indrajith (wicketkeeper), Nitish Rana, Anukul Roy, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi

Sunil Gavaskar points out on Star Sports that while Anukul Roy may not be a regular first team player in the IPL, “we all know that he is a brilliant fielder.” “We have seen him coming on as a substitute fielder whenever a bowler has bowled a few overs,” he says.   

Shreyas Iyer says that Anukul Roy has come in for the struggling Venkatesh Iyer. Shivam Mavi also comes in for KKR. 

Sanju Samson says that Karun Nair comes in for Daryl Mitchell for RR. 

Shreyas Iyer wins the toss, KKR to bowl first. 

KKR had used 19 players so far this season and it looks like they might just make it 20 this season. Anukul Roy, the Jharkhand all-rounder, has been given his maiden cap by KKR. 

Matthew Hayden says that the wicket is “very, very hard, extremely dry”. “Expect a big scoring game this evening. I think the sides in this venue are starting to get a bit tired (of bowling first), I think they should be batting first.  

The Wankhede Stadium is turning out to be a bit of a dilemma for captains. While usual convention is to bowl first if you win the toss in day-night T20 matches, the fact that two of the last three matches have been won by teams bowling first has put some questions on that formula. 

Jos Buttler is 99 runs away from reaching 8000 T20 runs. That means that there is a very good chance of him reaching that mark today, considering how he has played thus far this season. 

RR won the last match played between these two sides by 7 runs in what was a high scoring a thriller. RR scored 217/5 and KKR were all out for 210. The match had almost everything with Buttler scoring a century, Chahal getting a hat-trick and an incredible 107-run stand between Shreyas Iyer and Aaron Finch that came in less than 9 overs. 

Trent Boult’s statistics in the first four games of the season and the four matches played since are like chalk and cheese. The New Zealand fast bowler took seven wickets for RR in the first four matches but has since taken just one. His average was 16.6 at the time and it has shot up to 141 in the last four matches. 

KKR have been on a bit of a winning run against RR in recent seasons of the IPL because of which the two teams are neck and neck in the head to head stats. Of the 25 matches between them, RR have won 13 and KKR have 12 victories, including two Super Over wins. 

Venkatesh Iyer’s form will be the focus for KKR as they decide a playing XI for today. Read More

RR became the first team this season to lose to the Mumbai Indians, despite Buttler scoring a sublime 67 off 52 balls. This may lead to them putting in a few alterations to their playing XI todays game. Read More

KKR batters have a combined average of just over 19 this season, easily the worse among all teams. Their strike rate in the middle overs is the highest among all teams but the average in that area is also among the lowest, showing that they tend to lose wickets while trying to hit out bowlers even before the start of the death overs. 

Rajasthan Royals have played 14 times at the Wankhede Stadium and won just three matches. 

A run if five consecutive defeats means that there will be speculation about problems in the team environment. Kevin Pietersen, who knows a thing or two about fractured dressing rooms, said that KKR’s dressing room is the opposite of that of Gujarat Titans, to whom they lost by eight wickets on Saturday. 

“That is a dressing room full of the opposite energy to Gujarat: negative, negative, negative. Last year, that run to the final was defined by out-of-the-box thinking. They had their analyst, Nathan Leamon, front and centre, sending signals out to the middle, and they seemed really innovative. Now it seems like the whole thing has run out of momentum. Along with Mumbai, they are my disappointments of the competition so far,” Pietersen wrote on Betway. 

Andre Russell is 73 runs away from 2000 runs in IPL while Sunil Narine needs 19 more to complete 1000 runs in the league.

Comparisons have been rife between the kind of season Buttler is having this year to what Virat Kohli did in the 2016 IPL and whether the Englishman can surpass the former RCB and former India captain’s numbers from that season. Kohli scored a total of 973 runs in 16 innings in 2016 with five centuries to his name. While Buttler remains a long way away from those giddy numbers, the fact remains that he has scored 566 runs in nine innings while Kohli had made 561 at the same point in 2016. 

Bowling has first has often been the way to go for teams over the past two seasons because of the dew factor but teams batting first have won two out of the last three matches played at the Wankhede Stadium. It has to be noted, though, that one of these matches was a day game, in which dew hardly plays a role at any point of the match. 

Buttler’s form has also been balanced out by the fact that RR seem to be overdependent on their opener. While Buttler has averaged over 70, the rest of the lineup is averaging just under 22. Buttler has scored nearly half of RR’s total runs this season. 

The Orange Cap table is one that Buttler has made his own. The player closest to him is Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul, who is over 100 runs behind the England batter and has played one match more. Rahul has scored 451 runs with two centuries in 10 matches. Third placed Abhishek Sharma, on the other hand, is on 324 runs in nine matches. 

We are just past the halfway mark of the IPL and Buttler has already scored 566 runs in nine games, which is regarded as a good tally for any batter at the end a season. He has got there at a strike rate of 155.06 and an average of 70.75. In addition to famously scoring three centuries, Buttler has also scored three half centuries, which means there have been just three instances this season of him scoring less than 50 runs in an innings. 

Regardless of what happens this season, it will be remembered as one in which Buttler showed just how formidable he is in the shortest format of the game. Buttler was at the centre of England’s dominant run in the T20 World Cup last year but he was also involved in a lot of Test matches in which he was mediocre at most times. 

KKR seem to be doing a reverse this year of what they did last season. While they suffered a disastrous start before putting up a hot run to the final in 2021, they seem to have completely squandered a fairly good start this year. KKR had three wins in their first four matches but now, they are looking to avoid a sixth consecutive defeat and seventh overall against a team that have the best bowling lineup and the most dangerous batter in their side.