his moves on the field are affirmative and one that has the stamp of practicality at all times they are very consistent with their starts allowing karthik to come lower down the order and apply the finishing touches to the innings todays eliminator between kolkata knight riders and rajasthan royals at eden gardens has left west indian legend sir viv richards mulling the two teams passage to the ipl 2018 playoffs and he has singled out rajasthans determination with a slice of luck as the standout features they have been the royals magic along with jos buttlers topnotch knocks and not to forget sanju samsons contribution in the early stages rajasthan had only retained steve smith during the auction and after unforeseen circumstances he was unable to play making rajasthan think on their feet being mentored by the legendary australian spinner shane warne along with ajinkya rahane who stepped up to take on the captains responsibility the boys in blue were ready for a fight ahead and their hard work paid off in the end wrote richards in his times of india column although dinesh karthiks leadership was not very fluid to start off he has slowly become more definitive and the man himself has grown as a thinking captain he wrote richards singled out karthiks leadership and clinical finishing abilities as well as the impact that sunil narine 327 runs and chris lynn 425 runs have had as an opening act also read ipl 2018 new delhi kkr captained by dinesh karthik have proven a formidable team despite rahanes struggles as a batsman and underpar performances my jaydev unadkat ben stokes darcy short and stuart bunny the jaipur franchise stayed in contention for the playoffs largely due to job buttlers five consecutive halfcenturies and some superb supporting acts from shreyas gopal k gowtham rahul tripathi and ish sodhi despite injuries to two key bowlers and a shaky start they finished the league stage at third place on the ipl 2018 points table kkr coach kallis wary of royals threatreturning to the ipl fold after a twoyear suspension rajasthan were hit before a ball was bowled when their skipper steven smith was ruled out of the ipl following the balltampering controversy which pushed up ajinkya rahane to the leadership role the absence of buttler and stokes is a major handicap for rahanes team as they face kkr in todays losergoeshome clash but richards believes there is a steeliness to them that underlines plenty both k gowtham and shreyas gopal were fabulous this season has not been flawless for the kolkata knight riders as well but more about scrapping and getting the job done until they found their mojo again the openers sunil narine and chris lynn have been their elixir this season both teams have had major hurdles to overcome over the course of the season but the young rr players who stepped up and put their best foot forward gave the team and the fans that extra spark and