KKR opener Jason Roy had been in good form in the IPL 2023. So it duly needed a special catch from Rajasthan Royals‘ Shimron Hetmyer to end Roy’s stay at the crease early in their match at the Eden Gardens on Thursday.
In what is potentially a must-win clash for both teams who are at 10 points in 11 matches, it was RR who struck first with Trent Boult. But it was down to Shimron Hetmyer to take a stunning, running catch at the boundary line to dismiss Roy.
Roy had already cracked Boult for a couple of fours and was steaming to get going for a big knock. On the second ball of the third over, Roy nonchalantly flicked Boult off his pads onto the legside.
It had felt that the ball was traveling toward the boundary in the air until it was crossed by the outstretched arms of Shimron Hetmyer who was running hard to his right. Hetmyer barely managed to cling onto the ball, all while in his motion of running with pace and keeping himself inches away from the rope. Harsha Bhogle on air couldn’t control his excitement at this incredible catch from the West Indian.
Watch: Shimron Hetmyer takes an astonishing running catch of Jason Roy
How good was that catch by @SHetmyer to dismiss Jason Roy.
Live – https://t.co/jOscjlr121 #TATAIPL #KKRvRR #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/AeaGnIwkss
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 11, 2023
Earlier, RR skipper Sanju Samson had won the toss and elected to field first at the Eden Gardens. RR brought back Boult in the line-up and also came in KM Asif while KKR replaced Arora with Anukul.
Nitish Rana – 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
Sanju Samson – We will bowl here first. Long tournament, need to change according to the strength and weaknesses. Couple of changes for us – Boult replaces Kuldip Yadav, KM Asif replaces 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
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Rajasthan Royals (Playing XI): Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal
KKR impact subs: Suyash Sharma, Vaibhav Arora, N Jagadeesan, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson
RR impact subs: Donavon Ferreira, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini
