Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL on Saturday, thanks to Chris Morris’ four-wicket haul in the death overs and skipper Sanju Samson’s measured innings. After Samson chose to bowl first, the Royals pacers used their change of speed to limit KKR to 133 for nine. The Royals dropped their openers in the powerplay, Jos Buttler (5) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (22), but they never lost hold of the chase and crossed the line in 18.5 overs for their second victory in five matches.
It was KKR’s fourth defeat in five matches. Morris, the most valuable player in IPL history, demonstrated his worth with four for 23 in four overs.
Jaydev Unadkat (1/25), Chetan Sakariya (1/31) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/22) were the other pacers who contributed significantly.
Early in the chase, Royals fans endured a tense moment when Buttler took a nasty knock to the head when attempting to negotiate a sharp bouncer from Pat Cummins.
Varun Chakravarthy, a mystery spinner, soon caught the England cricketer in front. Jaiswal played some beautiful strokes in his first game of the season before getting stuck in the deep.
In the first six innings, the Royals were 50 for two. Following Jaiswal’s dismissal, Samson (42 not out off 41 balls) put together a 45-run stand with Shivam Dube (22) before guiding his team to victory with David Miller (24 not out off 23).
Samson, who is noted for his fluid strokeplay, restrained himself from anchoring the chase. Earlier in the innings, KKR were unable to find a groove in their underwhelming performance. Shubman Gill (11) continues to fail despite his high rating. He was dropped before Buttler’s genius direct hit finished his uncomfortable stop in the centre with a run out.
As KKR struggled to 25 for one in six overs, the Royals pacers impressed with their variations and did not give the batsmen any freebies in the Powerplay. In the eighth over, Gill’s opening partner Nitish Rana (22) made space to cut a deep ball off Sakariya, but the extra bounce proved to be his undoing as he edging it to the wicketkeeper.
Sunil Narine was sent ahead of himself by skipper Eoin Morgan to give the innings a boost, but it did not succeed, with the West Indian departing after just touching one boundary, leaving KKR at 55 for three in 10 overs.
Morgan was chased out without facing a ball after a poor mix-up with Rahul Tripathi, compounding KKR’s woes (36 off 26). With the innings stuck at 94 for five, their most dangerous batsman, Andre Russell, had to wait until the 16th over to get into the centre.
In order to increase his scoring performance, Dinesh Karthik (25 off 24) came up with some much-needed boundaries. Russell struck Morris for a straight six on the fifth pitch he faced, but it was his only major hit of the night.
Morris took out both Russell and Karthik in the same over, allowing the Royals to keep KKR under 140 runs.