Yuzvendra Chahal became IPL's leading wicket-taker before completing a brilliant four-wicket haul as Rajasthan Royals restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to a below-par 149 for eight in Kolkata on Thursday. (More Cricket News) | (Scorecard)
On a day RR dished out an eye-grabbing fi🐈elding display, Chahaꦜl grabbed two wickets in three balls when he dismissed KKR top-scorer Venkatesh Iyer (57; 42b) and Shardul Thakur (1) in the middle overs before ending with figures of 4-0-25-4.
Chahal (187 wickets) eclipsed 🐼Dwayne Bravo (1🔜83) to become the all-time leading wicket-taker of the IPL when he struck off his second ball to dismiss KKR skipper Rana (22; 17b).
He ended his spell dismissing the ✨inform♔ Rinku Singh (16) to also become the leading wicket-taker this season with 21 wickets.
Put in on a dry Eden wicket, KKR frontline batters came a cropper, as Venkatesh 𝓰held the fort and returned to form with a fighting fift𝓰y.
From being ﷺtwo off 12 balls, Venkatesh paced his innings well and raced to a 39-ball 🧔fifty. But he slashed a wide delivery from Chahal to be brilliantly caught by Trent Boult.
Andre Russell (10; 10b) failed to make it big after he was promoted to No 5 ღand fell to KM Asif.
KKR, who were 58/2 after nine overs, looked to seize the momentum after taking a strategic time ou𒐪t in the 10th over.
Venkatesh finally broke free smashing Ashwin for back-to-back sixes, while Rana ended the over with an elegant four through extra-cover t🌌o take them to 76/2 at ♎the midway mark.
KKR lo🤡oked on course for a decent total before Chahal triggered a mid-innings co𝔍llapse.
Earlier in the innings, two spectacular catches inside the power play set the tone for the Royals as KKR once again had a terrible start to be 37/2 in the first six over🦹s.
Both came in Trent Boultꦺ's successive overs as the Kiwi left-arm pacer returned with 2/15 from his three overs in his comeback match.
First, it was Shimron Hetmyer who took a blinder to dismiss Jason Roy in t꧂he third over.
Running from deep square leg, not only did Hetmyer mꩵanage to time his jump to perfection, he balanced his body from touching the rope in a split of a second.
It seemed🎃 to have rubbed off on Sandeep Sharma, who out of nowhere took a diving catch at midoff to send back a dang🍃erous-looking Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the fifth over.
Venkatesh dragged the team further behꦇind playing a 🦹Test-match like innings.
He swung his bat hard, stepped out, but nothing seemed to be coming off from his bat, while Royal♎s gave it all in the field.
RR fielders were🦋 also brilliant on the field and saved at least 15-20 runs.
