IPL 2018, KKR vs RR: 3 best decisions from the game

A relatively calm chase by Kolkata Knight Riders thanks to brilliant captain's knock from Dinesh Karthik, breaking the winning streak of Rajasthan Royals in their own backyard. Batting first, Rajasthan Royals never got the momentum to their innings and scrambled to 160 in good batting conditions. Dinesh Karthik was smart with his bowling changes, opening with spinners and bowling them in the powerplay and finishing the chase with the help of an excellent partnership with Nitish Rana, who had a good game with bat and ball and winning consecutive man of the match award.

Sportkeeda takes a look at the three commendable tactics employed in the game which had a considerable impact on the end result.

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#1 Counter-attacking Rahane

Dinesh Karthik's strategy to open with spin at both ends against the likes of D'Arcy Short worked to a certain extent until batsman at the other end, Ajinkya Rahane decided to take the matter on his own ends. Both batsmen struggled to keep the scoring rate up for first three overs, scoring only 9 runs. But when Sunil Narine came to bowl, Rahane went berzerk and smashed four consecutive boundaries offsetting his lengths by using his feet and maneuvering the fields. When Karthik turned to a pacer in Shivam Mavi, Rahane was equally severe on him smashing him for a six first ball he faced, dancing down the track.

He eventually got out to a part-time spinner Nitish Rana for 36 runs at an impressive strike rate of 190 thanks to a brilliant stumping from Dinesh Karthik.

#2 Ben Stokes Choking with the spin

Having bowled 3 overs in the powerplay, Piyush Chawla was brought into the attack, late in the innings by Dinesh Karthik in a bid to trouble Ben Stokes who had a glaringly poor record against leg spinners.

Dropping down the order behind Rahul Tripathi, Ben Stokes had no other option but to attack against the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla, with the latter getting better off him with a well disguised googly slicing it to extra cover where Nitish Rana took a comfortable catch.

Stokes could muster only 14 runs including a solitary six against Kuldeep which was not enough to post a competitive total on the board.

#3 All-rounder Nitish Rana

With the luxury of three high-quality spinners in his armory, Dinesh Karthik turned to part-timer Nitish Rana for a couple of overs in a bid to trouble their batsmen. He got more than he bargained for in the end, with the wickets of both the openers including a brilliant stumping from himself to remove captain Rahane who was counter-attacking until that point. D'Arcy Short who had a hard time tackling spinners got out to Rana after scoring 44 runs at run-a-ball. Overall, Dinesh Karthik had a brilliant match as captain where his strategy paid off almost everytime despite under-bowling his pacers and finishing the chase with a bat forging a match-winning partnership with Nitish Rana.