Mumbai: Skipper Sanju Samson’s unbeaten 42 runs after Chris Morris’ stand out spell helped Rajasthan Royals to defeat Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by six wickets in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match here at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday evening.
Morris picked four wickets and restricted KKR to 133/9 in their allotted 20 overs. In reply, Samson’s gritty knock of 42 off 41 balls helped the side to chase the total with seven balls to spare.
Chasing 134, Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal stitched a 21-run brief partnership for the opening wicket before spinner Varun Chakravarthy dismissed the former at 5 in the fourth over.
After Buttler’s wicket, skipper Samson joined Jaiswal in the middle. Samson added a 19-run stand with Jaiswal for the second wicket. Shivam Mavi sent Jaiswal (22) back to the pavilion in the sixth over.
Shivam Dube and Samson steered the side after the departure of openers. The duo built a 45-run partnership for the third wicket. In the 11th over, Chakravarthy bagged another scalp as he removed Dube (22).
Rahul Tewatia did not last at the crease for long as he was picked by pacer Prasidh Krishna in the 14th over. Tewatia just scored five runs.
David Miller came in to bat at number six. He along with Samson took the responsibility to take the side over the line. Samson scored unbeaten 42 while Miller amassed not out 24.
For KKR, Chakravarthy picked two scalps while Mavi and Krishna bagged one wicket each.
Earlier, in the last three overs, KKR scored 23 runs and lost Dinesh Karthik, swashbuckling batsman Andre Russell, and last match’s hero Pat Cummins. Morris dismissed all the three batsmen to deny KKR any chance of slogging in the death overs.
On the last ball of the KKR’s innings, Morris removed Shivam Mavi to bag his fourth wicket of the day.
Put in to bat first, KKR got off to a bad start which eventually worsened as the innings progressed. The side scored eight runs in the first two overs and then lost the wicket of Shubman Gill in the sixth over.
Jos Buttler’s direct hit ended Gill’s knock with KKR scoring 25 runs in the powerplay. KKR kept losing wickets at regular intervals and got reduced to 61/4 at the halfway mark.
While Nitish Rana was removed by Chetan Sakariya, skipper Eoin Morgan registered a diamond duck in the 11th over. Yashasvi Jaiswal redeemed himself as he took a stunning catch running and diving forward to send Narine back in the hut.
However, Rahul Tripathi kept batting freely and hit timely boundaries to revive KKR’s innings. Rahul along with Dinesh Karthik stitched a 33-run stand before the former departed in the 16th over.
Karthik took KKR over the 100-run mark in the 17th over. Andre Russell perished before he could unleash the beast within. The all-rounder smacked a six in the 18th over but wasn’t able to carry forward the momentum.
In the same over, Karthik too departed as Morris bagged two wickets in three balls to leave KKR reeling at 118/7. In the end, KKR was only able to score 133 runs as Cummins failed to replicate what he did against CSK on Wednesday.
Brief Scores:
KKR 133/9 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 36, Dinesh Karthik 25; Chris Morris 4-23); Rajasthan Royals 134/4 in 18.5 overs(Sanju Samson 42*, David Miller 24*; Varun Chakravarthy 2-32).