IPL 2022, KKR vs RR: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rajasthan Royals to end 5-match losing streak

Kolkata Knight Riders' gameplan. And for a change, they got it right this time as they beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets to stage a comeback after five consecutive defeats in this IPL. The purple brigade made two changes to the playing XI, trying out their fifth opening pair of the season. Although KKR lost both openers Baba Indrajit and Aaron Finch inside the Powerplay, the good work done by their bowlers to restrict RR to a below-par 152/5, after Shreyas Iyer won the toss and put the opposition in, helped them to get 158/3 in 19.1 overs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday. AS IT HAPPENED | SCORECARD | POINTS TABLERR's heroes in their last match against KKR - Jos Buttler, who got 103 off 60 balls and Yuzvendra Chahal, who claimed a fifer - came a cropper, which made a big difference to their fortunes. Man-in-form Buttler had a rare off day, managing just 22, and Chahal returned with none for 31 off his four overs. Ashwin also failed to impress, giving away 33 runs without any success. The unbroken 66-run fourth-wicket stand between left-handers Rinku Singh (42) and Nitish Rana (48) sealed the deal for KKR and kept them alive to fight another day. KKR benched both their retained domestic players Venkatesh Iyer and Varun Chakravarthy, but seemed to have got an able partner to Sunil Narine, their most effective bowler this season, with Anukul Roy rising to the occasion on his debut match for the franchise.

Spinners have always acted as the backbone of the KKR attack, and this time the out-of-form Chakravarthy had affected their plans. Their two spinners on Monday gave away just 47 runs in their eight overs, with Roy claiming the wicket of Karun Nair, who came in place of Daryll Mitchell. Umesh Yadav once