Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine turned the game for Kolkata Knight Riders, pulling things back after a loose start to keep Rajasthan Royals to 155/9 on Sunday. KKR were slow to react early on.
Ajinkya Rahane waited before going to spin, and Rajasthan’s openers made the most of it. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi added 63 without loss in the powerplay, scoring freely against the seamers. The change came once spin was introduced.
Narine started in the fifth over, Chakravarthy in the ninth. By then, Sooryavanshi had found his rhythm, even taking Narine for a six early. But the control returned quickly. Chakravarthy got rid of the 15-year-old soon after, bringing up his 200th T20 wicket.
Sooryavanshi went for a slog sweep but failed to clear Ramandeep Singh at deep midwicket. That wicket shifted the game. Rajasthan, who were scoring close to 10 an over, slipped to 118/4 in 15 overs.
Jaiswal made 39, Sooryavanshi 46, while Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag fell cheaply. Chakravarthy kept it tight through the middle, finishing with 3/14. Narine backed him up, removing Jaiswal and Donovan Ferreira to end with 2/26.
The runs dried up, and Rajasthan struggled to reset. In the final overs, Kartik Tyagi picked up three wickets, including Ravindra Jadeja and Shimron Hetmyer, to keep the total in check.
