IPL 2019: A dropped catch that cost KKR the game against RR

Yesterday Kolkata Knight Riders lost their sixth game of IPL 2019 on the trot and moved a step closer to the bottom of the pile. With just four wins from 11 games, they are now at the sixth position in the IPL points table.

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore also have four wins from the same number of matches. A comparatively better net run-rate is the only reason why KKR have maintained their 6th position.

In the match against RR yesterday KKR batted first and lost Chris Lynn before opening the account. Lynn played a delivery on to the stumps off Varun Aaron, who had come into the playing XI after a long time.

Aaron went on to pick the wicket of Shubman Gill in the 5th over with a slower knuckleball which swung sharply into the batsman. When Shreyas Gopal sent back the in-form Nitish Rana, KKR were in serious trouble at 42/3.

The skipper Dinesh Karthik stitched together a decent partnership with Sunil Narine before the latter was dismissed for and eight-ball 11. Andre Russell then started with a six but soon perished off a delivery from fellow West Indian Oshane Thomas.

Even though wickets kept falling at one end, Karthik was scoring fluently at the other side. His blitzkrieg in the final three overs made sure that KKR posted a respectable 175 within the 20 overs. Karthik remained not out on 97 off 50 balls.

Chasing 176, the Royals openers got off to a good start as they raced past 50 within the first 5 overs. But with the introduction of Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla, things started to turn upside down for the visitors.

Narine drew first blood for KKR in the sixth over by trapping Ajinkya Rahane leg before wicket. The subsequent over saw Sanju Samson being castled by Piyush Chawla. Steven Smith was then clean bowled by Narine in the 8th over of the innings which reduced RR to 63/3.

In came Riyan Parag,the young batsman from Assam. And it could have been a very short stay at the crease for him too, as the first ball he faced saw Narine dropping a sitter of a catch.

Parag was surprised by a Narine delivery that spun back into him, and chipped it into the air - right in Narine's path. But Narine couldn't grab the easy opportunity that had been gifted to him.

Little did the KKR fans know that that miss was going to cost them the game. Parag went on to score a gritty 47 off 31 balls which included 5 fours and 2 sixes. His partnership with Jofra Archer saw 44 runs being added from just 21 balls, and that ended up being the decisive factor in RR's win.

With this defeat, KKR's chances of getting into the playoffs have diminished even further. Which is why they must be intensely ruing that dropped chance by Narine.