IPL 2018, RR vs KKR: Hits and Misses

#1 Hit: Nitish Rana

Nitish Rana was once again superb with both bat and ball

Nitish Rana has been a revelation for KKR this season. If not with the bat, he delivers with the ball. His wickets of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli off successive balls was one of the talking points of the first week. He has also been contributing with the bat consistently and has been getting starts. He scored a match-winning 59 in the last game against Delhi Daredevils.

In this game, RR got off to a good start and were 48 for 0 at the end of the powerplay. Searching for a wicket, Dinesh Karthik handed the ball to Rana and the move once again worked. Rana got Rahane stumped, thanks to some brilliance from Karthik. He then came back to dismiss the other opener, D’Arcy Short. The latter was cleaned up with a straighter delivery and he finished with figures of 2 for 11 in 2 overs.

With the bat, Rana came in to bat at 70 for 2 and looked quite calm in the middle. He struck a fluent 35 in 27 deliveries (2 fours and 1 six) and took KKR home. On the back of his all-round performance, he won his second consecutive Man of the Match.