Knight Riders snap five-match losing streak
The Hindu
Spinners Anukul and Narine restrict Royals to 152 before Shreyas, Rana and Rinku power the chase
The Kolkata Knight Riders spinners proved too wily for the Rajasthan Royals batters, helping the side set up a seven-wicket win during their return leg fixture at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
All-rounder Anukul Roy shone with the ball in his very first outing in purple-and-gold, finishing with figures of 4-0-28-1 as KKR finally got its campaign back on track after five straight losses.
Sunil Narine was impressive as usual — albeit not on the field — conceding just 19.
After Shreyas Iyer’s men chose to bowl, Umesh Yadav provided the breakthrough with a blinder off his own bowling to send Devdutt Padikkal back to the dugout.
Jos Buttler struggled against Narine. Along with skipper Sanju Samson (54, 49b, 7x4, 1x6), the English opener only managed to take Royals to 38 in the PowerPlay.
Tim Southee snared the big fish in the ninth over. Buttler, looking to break the shackles, flat-batted to a leaping Shivam Mavi at long-on.
Karun Nair then fell to Anukul, who smartly dragged back his length. Riyan Parag also took the long walk back shortly after.
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.