Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a scintillating unbeaten 98 as Rajasthan Royals defeated the Kolkata Knight Riders by nine wickets at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
After being sent into bat, Trent Boult got Rajasthan off to a great start- first by dismissing Jason Roy (10) who fell to a brilliant catch by Shimron Hetmyer, running to the right from deep square leg, and then Rahmanullah Gurbaz miscuing a lofted hit to Sandeep Sharma at mid off for 18.
KKR skipper Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer added 48 runs for the third wicket before the former (22) mistimed a sweep off Yuzvendra Chahal to Hetmyer at deep backwward square leg.
Andre Russell (10) then ended up cutting a delivery off KM Asif to Ashwin at backward point.
Chahal then pegged KKR back with wickets of the well set Venkatesh Iyer (57) and Shardul Thakur (1) leg before wicket. Left hander Rinku Singh (16) failed to provide a final flourish, as the Knight Riders finished at 149/8 in their 20 overs.
Chasing 150, Jaiswal got RR off to a rollicking start by smashing Nitish Rana for 26 in his opening over. Jos Buttler was then run out by a direct hit from Russell, following a horrible mix up with Jaiswal.
The left hander reached his fastest IPL fifty in just 13 balls, going past the earlier record jointly held by KL Rahul and Pat Cummins (14 balls).
The 21 year old Jaiswal (98)* and Sanju Samson (48)* featured in an unbeaten 121 run stand for the second wicket as the Royals reached the target with 41 balls to spare.
The left hander Jaiswal was adjudged the Player of the Match for his swashbuckling knock.