With Jason Roy added to their line-up, the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are given a breath of fresh air. The dynamic England opener, one of the most destructive openers in white-ball cricket, has cracked consecutive half-centuries in the last two games – vs CSK and vs RCB, with the second one coming in a match-winning cause.
Jason Roy’s match-winning fifty against RCB helped KKR break their 4-match losing streak and Nitish Rana’s side can hope for a playoff spot again.
At the M. Chinnaswamy stadium, Jason Roy whacked 56 runs off 29 balls with the help of 4 fours and 5 sixes. 4 of those sixes came in a single over, that of left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed in the last over of the powerplay, and that included a hat-trick of sixes as well from the burly right-handed opener.
Getting the strike on the second ball of the over, Jason Roy first chipped Ahmed after skipping down the pitch for a six over long-on. On the next ball, he slog-swept Ahmed over mid-wicket for another six, and followed it up with a pulled six that barely went over the deep square leg fielder. After a dot ball, Jason Roy powerfully muscled a full ball for a gigantic six over the mid-wicket fence to take 4 sixes from the over.
6,6,6,.,6: Jason Roy’s carnage over RCB, Watch:
After Jason Roy’s belligerent hitting, which got KKR off to a flier despite Jagadeesan’s struggles, Nitish Rana cracked 48 off 21 and Rinku Singh blasted 18 off 10 to take KKR to a total of 200.
In reply, RCB never got going. Virat Kohli’s half-century went in vain as the hosts went down by 21 runs at their home ground of M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
As he did in their previous encounter in Kolkata, mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy spun another web around the RCB batters and downed them. The hosts stuttered from the start of their chase, going down to 58/3. Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror forged a fighting partnership of 55 (34), but once both of them were dismissed, a loss seemed inevitable.
