IPL 2018, RR vs KXIP: Hits and Misses

It was just the fourth instance of a captain winning the toss and batting first in this season of the IPL as Rajasthan Royals won the toss and opted to bat. They had an excellent start as they fetched 63 runs in the powerplay as Jos Buttler was once again looking in superb touch.

However, RR couldn’t build on that power play as they could only manage 158 in their 20 overs. Buttler (82) who scored his third fifty on the trot, was the only batsman who scored above 25. Andrew Tye picked up 4 wickets while Mujeeb took a couple of wickets as well.

Chasing 159, KXIP lost wickets at regular intervals and never got going in their chase. KL Rahul was the only batsman that showed some fight and he batted through and scored an unbeaten 95. But with wickets falling around him and the slow pitch didn’t help his cause as he couldn’t quite get KXIP over the line. RR snapped a 3-match losing streak and climbed to the 6th spot in the points table (with 8 points).

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#5 Hit: Andrew Tye

Andrew Tye finished off the innings very well as he took 3 wickets and conceded just 6 runs in the final over.

Andrew Tye has been superb in this IPL. He has led the KXIP pace attack wonderfully and is the highest wicket-taker for them in this season.

In this game, Tye came into the attack in the 4th over. RR had already scored 35 as Jos Buttler had raced off to 27 off 11 balls. Ajinkya Rahane was giving him good company as he was rotating the strike well. But Tye came in and struck immediately as he got the wicket of Rahane with a clever change of pace (knuckle-ball). He gave just 3 in his first over as he brought some control to the innings.

After a good first over, the 21-year-old Aussie quick went for 11 and 14 in his next two overs. But he came back really well in his final over which was also the 20th over of the innings. He took 3 wickets and conceded just 6 runs as he didn’t allow the RR lower-order to finish with a flourish. Tye finished with figures of 4/34 as he took his wicket tally to 16 this IPL.

#4 Miss: Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin had a disappointing outing.

Ravichandran Ashwin’s captaincy has been one of the talking points of this season’s IPL. However, he hasn’t quite been able to have an impact with the ball. Despite bowling four overs in every game, he’s picked up just 6 wickets in this IPL at an economy nearing 8.

The KXIP skipper has usually bowled a couple of overs in the powerplay in most of the games, but he decided to hold himself back in this game. He came into bowl in the 8th over and started well. He gave just 10 runs in his first two overs but was taken for runs in the next two.

The Tamil Nadu off-spinner conceded 24 runs in his last two overs and finished with figures of 0/34. He also promoted himself to No. 3 but that move backfired as he was out for a two-ball duck trying to go for the big shots.

#3 Hit: Jos Buttler

Jos Buttler scored his third consecutive fifty.

Jos Buttler has been a revelation at the top of the order. He has carried the RR batting line-up ever since he started opening (which happened a couple of games back). After scoring a couple of fifties in the last two games, Buttler was once again the top-scorer for RR in this game.

On what seemed like a slow pitch, Buttler knew he had to make use of the new ball and get as many runs as possible. Thus, he went after the bowling right from the word go. He hit a couple of fours in the first over and then smashed Axar Patel for a four and a six to give RR flying start. RR got to 63 in the powerplay and out of those the England wicket-keeper had scored 45 off 22 balls.

As the innings progressed, it became harder to score and hence, Buttler slowed down. He started rotating the strike and ran hard between the wickets. But as he tried to up the ante at the death, he was stumped for a superb 82. On a slow pitch where shot making seemed tough, it was Buttler’s efforts that helped RR get close to 160.

#2 Miss: Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle failed for the second consecutive game as he was stumped for 1 in this game.

Chris Gayle set the IPL on fire in the first few games that he played. He had scored 310 runs in 6 innings before this game. In those games, he had just one failure where he scored 8 (and that was in the last game).

He failed against the pace of Jofra Archer in the last game against Rajasthan Royals. In this game, he fell cheaply against the same opponents as Krishnappa had him stumped.

He got off the mark with a single off the first ball he faced. But the second ball he faced, he was stumped as Gowtham fired one down the leg-side as Gayle advanced down the track. Buttler did well to take it down the leg-side and take the bails off to dismiss the big man.

#1 Hit: RR spinners

Gowtham was brilliant as he troubled most of the KXIP batsmen.

Before this game, Rajasthan Royals' spinners had the least wickets among spinners of all teams. However, they responded in style as Krishnappa Gowtham and Ish Sodhi were excellent. Mahipal Lomror was the only RR spinner who went for a few runs as he conceded 19 runs in his 2 overs.

Krishnappa Gowtham once again took the new ball today and was simply brilliant. After a 4-run first over, the Karnataka off-spinner took two wickets in his second over and turned the game on its head. He first got Chris Gayle stumped down the leg-side and then bowled KXIP skipper Ravichandran Ashwin through the gate. He bowled 3 very good overs and had figures of 2/12.

Ish Sodhi who had a good IPL debut against SRH was surprisingly left out in the last game. But on a dry and slow pitch, he was once again in the XI for this game. He also had an excellent game where he bowled economically and gave away just 14 runs in his 4 overs. He also picked up the wicket of Akshdeep Nath and broke a promising 26-run stand.

Thus, it was an excellent performance from the RR spinners and it was their performance that helped the Ajinkya Rahane-led side to their 4th win of the season.