IPL 2020: KKR gloveman Dinesh Karthik takes a stunning catch to dismiss RR's Ben Stokes

In the 54th match of the ongoing 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, KKR are playing against RR at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Coming on the back of thrilling victories against Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP), the 2008-champions are armed with much-needed confidence against the mighty Kings. The Knight Riders, on the other hand, are a tad bit low on confidence after losing two games on a trot.

However, this is a much-needed win for both the franchises as their fate hangs by a thread in the T20 Championship. Both KKR and RR are placed at the bottom half of the points table with 12 points each and desperately need these two points to stay relevant in the tournament and have any chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

Chasing the mammoth target of 192 posted by KKR on the board, RR showed the symptoms of an explosive start as the opening pair of Ben Stokes and Robin Uthappa smashed 19 runs in the first five balls of the innings. However, Pat Cummins made a noteworthy comeback as he took the wicket of Uthappa in the last ball of the first over. This was soon followed by a big wicket of England’s all-rounder Stokes.

In his second over of the evening, Cummins bowled a full angle ball which touched the thick edge on the bat. Taking this almost impossible catch behind the stumps, the wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik flaunted his flying skills. DK flew full length to his left and caught the left-hander behind him.

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— Simran (@CowCorner9) November 1, 2020

Eoin Morgan plays a captain’s knock to post a competitive total

Having won the toss, Steve Smith decided to bowl first with an expectation to sing the winning notes once again. As the match commenced, the star performer of the last fixture, Nitish Rana couldn’t perform the same magic with the willow again and bagged a golden duck. His opening partner Shubman Gill and right-hander Rahul Tripathi tried to provide some stability to the team by stitching a partnership of 72 runs in 8 overs.

However, both the batsmen soon lost their wickets. KKR received two other hiccups in the form of Sunil Narine and Dinesh Karthik as both of them got out on a duck. Despite the tough scenario, captain Eoin Morgan held his fort and played a much-needed knock of unbeaten 68 runs off 35 deliveries.

Andre Russell and Pat Cummins also made partnerships with Morgan in bits and pieces as they scored 25 and 15 runs respectively. Thus, KKR managed to post a competitive total of 191 runs at the loss of 7 wickets at the board in their 20 overs.

Rahul Tewatia emerged as one of the most successful bowlers for the Royals with three wickets at an economy of 6.2. The pace duo of Jofra Archer and Kartik Tyagi also bowled an economical spell of 4.8 and 9 respectively.