Roy’s heroics not enough for Kolkata as they lose to Super Kings
Jason Roy’s defiant 61 was not enough as Kolkata Knight Riders lost by 49 runs to Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.
The England batter reached fifty in just 19 balls – the second-quickest of the tournament so far – but Knight Riders could only reach 186-8, well short of their target of 236.
Roy’s innings included three successive sixes off England team-mate Moeen Ali.
Ajinkya Rahane earlier smashed 71 from 29 balls as Chennai posted 235-4.
Roy had left the field with a leg injury in the 19th over of Chennai Super Kings’ innings and did not immediately come back out to bat.
The 32-year-old eventually came in at five with Kolkata reeling on 70-4 and immediately launched a blistering fightback.
His 61 came off just 29 balls and featured five fours and five sixes.
But Roy’s eventual dismissal by Maheesh Theekshana ended Kolkata’s hopes of achieving what would have been an IPL-record high chase, despite an unbeaten 53 from 33 balls by Rinku Singh.
The win moves Chennai Super Kings two points clear at the top of the table on 10 points after five wins and two defeats from their seven games so far.
In Sunday’s early game, another big partnership from Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell inspired Royal Challengers Bangalore to a seven-run win over Rajasthan Royals.
RCB lost opener Virat Kohli with the first ball of the match and were in trouble at 12-2 when Maxwell joined Du Plessis in the middle, but together they smashed 127 runs off only 66 balls.
Maxwell eventually hit 77 off 44 deliveries with Du Plessis, the top-scorer in this year’s competition, adding 62 off 39.
England white-ball captain Jos Buttler fell for a second-ball duck as Rajasthan Royals made a terrible start to their reply.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal added 98 runs for the second wicket but fell in the space of 12 balls, with Harshal Patel removing Jaiswal for 47 and England’s David Willey dismissing Padikkal for 52.
Some late big hitting from Ravichandran Ashwin and an unbeaten 34 from 16 balls from Dhruv Jurel took the game to the last over, but Rajasthan fell just short to lose their place at the top of the table. (BBC)
