Kolkata, 16 April (HS). In the 31st match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, Rajasthan Royals defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by two wickets. Josh Butler was the hero of this victory. He played an unbeaten century. In this way Rajasthan retained its position at the top of the points table.
Kolkata, after losing the toss and opting to bat first in the match played at Eden Garden in Kolkata, scored 223 runs against Rajasthan by losing six wickets in 20 overs, thanks to the stormy innings of Sunil Narine. In reply, thanks to Josh Butler's unbeaten century, Rajasthan won the match by two wickets. Butler scored 107 not out. Apart from these, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 19 runs, captain Sanju Samson scored 12 runs, Ryan Parag scored 34 runs, Dhruv Jurail scored 2 runs, R Ashwin scored eight runs, Simran Hetmyer scored zero and R Powell scored 26 runs and Trent Boult scored zero runs. This was Butler's second century this season. For KKR, Harshit Rana, Sunil Narayan, Varun Chakraborty took two wickets each, while Vaibhav Arora got one success.
Earlier, while batting, Kolkata scored 223 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. Sunil Narine scored a brilliant century for Kolkata. He scored 109 runs in 56 balls. Whereas opener Phil Salt could not do anything special and returned to the pavilion after scoring only 10 runs. After this, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who came to bat at number three, scored a brisk 30 runs in 18 balls. Then captain Shreyash Iyer (11 runs) and Andre Rasan (13 runs) were out early. However, Rinku Singh definitely played an inning of 20 runs in 9 balls. Whereas from the other side Sunil Narine kept scoring runs continuously. During this, Sunil scored the first century of his IPL career. This star all-rounder scored 109 runs in 56 balls with the help of 13 fours and six sixes. For Rajasthan, Avesh Khan and Kuldeep Sen took two wickets each, while Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal got one wicket each.