Kolkata Knight Riders survived a top-order batting collapse to post a healthy total of 169/7 against Rajasthan Royals in the eliminator of the IPL 2018 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik (52) and all-rounder Andre Russell (49*) helped their team recover from 51/4 to set RR a target of 170. Though he did not pick up any wicket, New Zealand spinner Ish Sodhi was the pick of the RR bowlers, giving away just 15 runs in four overs. Off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham, and pacers Jofra Archer and Ben Laughlin chipped in with two wickets each.
RR won the toss and skipper Ajinkya Rahane elected to field first. His decision was vindicated in the first over itself when Gowtham dismissed danger man Sunil Narine for four. Robin Uthappa (3), too, fell to Gowtham in his next over.
Archer dismissed Nitish Rana (3) in the fourth over, leaving KKR in a spot of bother at 28/3. Karthik and Chris Lynn (18) tried to fight back with a 27-run partnership, but the latter was dismissed by Shreyas Gopal in the eighth over.
The fall of Lynn's wicket brought teenager Shubhman Gill (28) to the crease, who gave his skipper good support and put up a 55-run partnership. Karthik, who is KKR's highest run scorer this season with 490 runs before this game, played sensibly to bring up his half-century in the 17th over. He was, however, dismissed soon after.
From there, it was Russell all the way, hitting five sixes and three fours to help KKR to a competitive total.
The winner of this match will play SRH in qualifier 2 on May 25 for a place in the finals, to be held at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, on May 27.