KKR vs RR, IPL 2023 Highlights: Yashasvi Jaiswal hurricane leads Rajasthan to 9-wicket win

Gurbaz slaps the first ball of the fourth bowled by Sandeep over mid-off. Then he elegantly lifts the next ball inside out over extra cover. Sensational stuff from the Afghan youngster.

Roy plays this full length delivery towards the leg side, Hetmyer runs to the right from deep square takes the catch and then flails his hands about as he tries to keep himself inside the ropes. Succeeds and that's an early contender for catch of the match.

Roy c Hetmyer b Boult 10 (8), RR 14/1 in 2.2 overs

First ball of the third, Roy picks the line early and slaps the length delivery over midwicket.

Length ball from Sandeep for the fourth ball, Gurbaz takes a slash and the ball takes an outside edge, goes to the right of the short third fielder.

Trent Boult bowling the first over for RR, Jason Roy and Rahmanullah Gurbaz are opening the batting for KKR. 

“(On his personal form) By God’s grace, things are going good for now but as a team we are all trying to do well each game, let’s see how today pans out. The seniors in the side keep telling me to trust myself, play good cricketing shots and take brave decisions. Their words motivate me to bat fearlessly. (On team atmosphere) It is always great with our dressing room and with Sanju (Samson). We enjoy playing together. A few ups and downs like these will keep happening, those are learnings for us, we keep learning to move forward.”

Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal

The boundaries are between 55 and 73 metres around the ground. Rohan Gavaskar says it's the same pitch as was used in the last game, where the degree of turn was 2.3, up from 1.5 in previous games. He says the spinners hit a good length to allow the pitch to do its thing and that's what they'll need to do today. He says there will be runs and that spinners from both teams will have a say.

“I think we're getting the type of pitches we want. We will have to play good cricket, take one game at a time and earn 2 points. One change for us - Anukul Roy replaces Vaibhav Arora. Looks like the pitch is dry, they haven't watered a lot, so we are playing that extra spinner and add some depth to the batting”

“We will bowl here first. Long tournament, need to change according to the strength and weaknesses. Couple of changes for us - Boult replaces Kuldeip Yadav, KM Asif replaced Murugan Ashwin. Root will bat at 4. It's a long tournament, we have had some tough games for the bowlers, the morale of the team is high, not easy to forget close losses, but we need to move on”

Sanju Samson has won the toss and said that Rajasthan Royals want to field first.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldip Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Adam Zampa, Riyan Parag, Jason Holder, Obed McCoy, Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini, Akash Vasisht, KC Cariappa, KM Asif, Kuldeep Sen, Donavon Ferreira, Abdul Basith, Kunal Singh Rathore

Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jason Roy, Anukul Roy, N Jagadeesan, Lockie Ferguson, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Johnson Charles, David Wiese, Aarya Desai

Sunil Narine took six wickets in KKR's first three games, leading to proclamations that the West Indies veteran is set to show this season that he still has a lot left in his tank. However, he has only picked one wicket in eight matches since and his economy of 8.60 is the worst for him in an IPL season.

Oh to be Rinku Singh right now, hearing the Eden Gardens chanting your name even when you've got Andre Russell batting at the other end. Rinku has scored 337 runs in 11 matches at a strike rate of 151.12 and average of 56.17. Those are unreal numbers for a batter whose primary job is to provide a good finish.

Today could be the start of the process in which the 10-point logjam gets resolved, although it might only be replaced by a 12-point logjam for a brief period before the league stage ends. RR and KKR are two of the four teams stuck on this number and so one of these two sides are going to rise up to fourth with a win today. How that will matter in the race for the final four positions is a problem that requires some ground breaking mathematics to arrive at a solution. We will know when we know, eh?

KKR had a tough initiation to playing at the Eden Gardens this season but seem to have cracked the code of late. The dry pitch that they played on against PBKS brought their spinners into play and Varun Chakravarthy especially seems to have rediscovered his mojo.

RR had lost one of their first five matches this season, which is the reason why they are still fifth despite winning just once in their last five games. A combination of runs drying up from middle order stalwards like Shimron Hetmyer and Sanju Samson, Trent Boult's injury troubles and some peculiar tactics from Samson have contributed in their form falling off a cliff. A loss today will actually put question marks on whether they can make it to the playoffs, which is extraordinary considering they were in the conversation for topping the league table for much of the first half of this stage.

It was "Rinku! Rinku!" that could be heard from the same stands that once shouted for Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Sachin Tendulkar and, in the IPL years, for the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Andre Russell. Russell was in the middle at the time these chants were ringing out but it was in Rinku Singh that KKR have found a finisher to put their faith in this season. He has happy memories of playing against RR. His match-winning innings of 42* off 23 against RR last year won him his first Player-of-the-Match award in IPL and proved to be a turning point in his career at KKR. Since then, he has never missed a game for the franchise.

"In any other game, with any other batter, I'm not sure if I would run [a bye in the penultimate ball]," Russell told reporters on his late partnership with Rinku that won KKR their last match against Punjab Kings. “I've never really done those things before. I would back myself to bat the last delivery and get the job done. But when you have a guy like Rinku, who has been so successful in the last couple of overs for us, and when you have such a fearless player who has a shot to counter any delivery, I was definitely confident.”

Ahead of the match, RR pacer Boult said, "KKR are a good side. Andre Russell is one of the most devastating batters in T20s. He has been out a few times, but bowling to him is difficult. Also, one should not forget Rinku Singh."

Both sides have faced each other 26 times with KKR leading 14-10 vs RR. Two matches have ended as a tie.

KKR: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Vaibhav Arora, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jason Roy, Anukul Roy, N Jagadeesan, Lockie Ferguson, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Johnson Charles, David Wiese, Aarya Desai

RR: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Murugan Ashwin, Sandeep Sharma, Kuldip Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Adam Zampa, Riyan Parag, Jason Holder, Obed McCoy, Trent Boult, Navdeep Saini, Akash Vasisht, KC Cariappa, KM Asif, Kuldeep Sen, Donavon Ferreira, Abdul Basith, Kunal Singh Rathore