Kolkata Knight Riders 169 for 7 (Karthik 52, Russell 49*, Gowtham 2-15) beat Rajasthan Royals 144/4 (Samson 50, Rahane 46, Chawla 2-24) by 25 runs
Kolkata: Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Rajasthan Royals by 25 runs thanks to captain Dinesh Karthik's superb half-century.
Kolkata's Eden Gardens Stadium batting first in the Eliminator match played on Wednesday, KKR scored 169 runs at the loss of 7 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs.
In reply, Rajasthan Royals could only manage 144 runs losing 4 wickets.
Chasing the target of 170 runs by Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi got off to a strong start, but Piyush Chawla hit Rahul Tripathi (20) on his own ball on the first ball of the sixth over. Rahane and Tripathi shared 47 runs for the first wicket.
Rahane and Sanju Samson handled the innings and crossed the score to 100. But on the first ball of the 15th over, Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav cut off Ajinkya Rahane and cut it. Rahane played 46 balls with 41 fours and a six. Samson and Rahane shared 62 runs for the second wicket.
Sanju Samson was also dismissed shortly after captain was dismissed. On the fifth ball of the 17th over, Piyush Chawla hit Samson in the hands of Javon Serdles. Samson played a remarkable half-century in 38 balls with 4 fours and 2 sixes.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders had set a target of 170 runs to win the Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday. With the help of Andre Russell (49 *) Piyush Chawla (0) returned to the dugout.
While batting first, the start of KKR was a bit disappointing. In the first over, Kolkata Knight Riders were the biggest shock in the form of Sunil Narine (4). Naren tried to play ahead on Goutam's ball but wicket-keeper batsman Heinrich Klassen stumped him.
After this, Gautam once again made Robin Uthappa (3) his victim. Gautam walked him out while catching his own ball.
After this, Jaffra Archer scored the fourth ball of the fourth over with a third blow to Kolkata as Nitish Rana (3). He got Rana out caught by Jaydev Unadkat.
At the same time, Rajasthan Royals got the biggest breakthrough as Chris Lynn (18) on the last ball of the eighth over. Shreyas Gopal walks on his own ball as he catches them out. For the fourth wicket, Lynn and Karthik shared a 27-run partnership.