Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), at rock bottom, finally had some light creep in through the crevice on Sunday as it bagged its first win and much-needed two points in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League.

Huffing and puffing to 161 to snap out of an eight-game winless run spanning across two seasons, KKR made hard work of the modest target of 156 set by the Rajasthan Royals (RR) but celebrated with the fervour of a title triumph at the Eden Gardens.

Earlier, after opting to bat, RR’s opening duo ‘Jai–Soorya’, who have effectively rewritten the Constitution of T20 batting while striking at a rate of 206, had an underwhelming outing by their standard.

While going at a rate of just 9.50 an over, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi—batting exactly a year after his much-talked-about IPL debut—fell in the ninth over, four short of a half-century.

Varun Chakaravarthy was the one happy to oblige. Having gone wicketless in his first three games this season, the mystery spinner finally brought up his 200th T20 wicket in the fifth.

When Sunil Narine’s five dot balls to Sooryavanshi in the fifth over felt like a minor power outage, Ajinkya Rahane would have felt KKR had missed a trick by not opening with spin on a dry-as-bone surface.

But once Varun returned to have Dhruv Jurel stumped and Narine dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal less than an over later, the KKR captain could finally breathe easy and move on from that thought.

Riyan Parag’s struggles continued as Varun speared in a 99.8 kph delivery that cramped him for room.

Narine tightened the chokehold further, inducing Donovan Ferreira to tap the final ball of his spell straight back to him. Express delivery without postage.

HIGHLIGHTS – Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals

And just when it seemed like a spinners’ union meeting, Kartik Tyagi crashed the party, snaring three wickets in the penultimate over to register his best T20 figures: 4-0-22-3.

In reply, KKR got off to a horrid start. While until a few days ago, New Zealand’s Finn Allen seemed to be the problem, his compatriot and replacement Tim Seifert seems to have broadened the horizons.

After the New Zealand wicketkeeper was dismissed for a first-ball duck, Rahane quickly decided to give him company in the dugout.

Angkrish Raghuvanshi never had his head in the game, and Cameron Green, fresh off a solid knock against Gujarat Titans (GT), departed courtesy of some nifty glovework from Dhruv Jurel. Rovman Powell tried steadying the ship for a while, but his stay was cut short by Ravindra Jadeja’s guile.

Eventually, it required a regulation drop from Nandre Burger (granting Rinku Singh a lifeline on 8), Rinku turning back the clock with an unbeaten fifty (remembering his five consecutive sixes against GT in IPL 2023), and all-rounder Anukul Roy’s able support to guide KKR over the line.

Published on Apr 19, 2026