GUWAHATI, India (AP) — Quinton de Kock made an unbeaten 97 off 61 balls as the Kolkata Knight Riders earned an eight-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
The defending champions raced to 153-2 with 15 balls to spare and made amends for their season-opening loss to the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Rajasthan had earlier stuttered to 151-9 against spinners Moeen Ali and Varun Chakaravarthy on a sluggish wicket that suited the slow bowlers. It was Rajasthan’s second straight loss.
Quinton quick off the blocks
De Kock read the wicket well and was aggressive against spinner Wanindu Hasaranga, while fast bowler Jofra Archer had second successive forgetful outing with the ball.
De Kock successfully went for television referral against an onfield lbw decision before he completed his half-century off 35 balls with a six over wide long-on against Hasaranga.
Ali, who bagged 2-20 off his four steady overs of off-spin bowling, struggled for 12 balls in scoring five runs. He got run out after he opened the innings with de Kock, and Hasaranga struck off his first ball by having captain Ajinkya Rahane (18) caught at square leg.
But de Kock then cut lose in an unbroken 83-run stand with Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who remained unbeaten on 22 off 17 balls.
De Kock finished off the game in style by smacking Archer (0-33) for two sixes and a boundary against the Englishman. De Kock hit eight boundaries and six sixes in his aggressive knock as Kolkata cruised to victory in 17.3 overs.
Kolkata spinners prosper
Kolkata’s new signing Moeen Ali combined well with Chakaravarthy on a dry wicket as both spinners not only dried up runs but also shared four top-order wickets.
In the absence of unwell Sunil Narine, Ali started the Rajasthan slide soon after the batting powerplay as they slipped from 67-1 to 82-5.
Captain Riyan Parag made a quickfire 25 off 18 balls with three sixes, but skied a catch to De Kock as he mistimed another six down the ground against Chakaravarthy.
Yashasvi Jaiswal (29) holed out at long-on in a bid to accelerate against Ali, who then hit the top of Nitish Rana’s off-stump when the left-hander tried to open the face of the bat and steer the off-spinner.
In between Ali’s twin strikes in successive overs, Chakaravarthy had Hasaranga caught at mid-off as the Sri Lankan, promoted to No. 5, fell for run-a-ball four.
Rajasthan tried to counterattack and brought in impact player Shubham Dubey, but it didn’t work as the batter was caught at deep third man after struggling to score 9 off 12 balls.
Dhruv Jorel hit five boundaries and top-scored with 33 off 28 balls and Archer (16 not out) smashed two sixes to help Rajasthan cross the 150-run mark.
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The Associated Press
