Rajasthan Royals’ clever bowling, aided by tight fielding, fashioned a six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
Electing to bowl, Royals restricted the Knight Riders 133/9. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, Royals chased down the modest target comfortably, courtesy collective efforts from Yashasvi Jaiswal (22), Sanju Samson (42 not out off 41) and Shivam Dube (22).
Jos Buttler (5) lost his way after a Pat Cummins bullet hit his helmet. Dazed and confused, the Englishman was trapped in front by Varun Chakravarthy. After five fours, Jaiswal’s adrenaline got the better of him as he attempted a drive off a Shivam Mavi delivery and found substitute fielder Kamlesh Nagarkoti at deep cover.
But skipper Samson dug his heels in, rotating the strike and hitting the odd boundary. He added 34 for the fifth wicket with David Miller (24 n.o., 23b) and also hit the winning runs.
Earlier, Knight Riders adopted a conservative approach on a good batting track. Openers Shubman Gill (11) and Nitish Rana (22) struggled to negate the slower ones and cutters from left-arm seamers Jaydev Unadkat, Chetan Sakariya and Mustafizur Rahman.
They could hit only two boundaries in PowerPlay, finishing at 25/1. Soon after being dropped by Jaiswal on 6, Gill threw his wicket away while going for a cheeky single. Buttler’s under-arm throw hit the stumps before Gill could make his ground.
Even before Rana could explode, Sakariya forced him to edge a short ball outside off to wicketkeeper Samson.
Things aggravated when Rahul Tripathi (36 off 26) and skipper Eoin Morgan had a communication gap, the confusion leading to the skipper’s run out without facing a ball.
Tripathi and Dinesh Karthik’s 33-run stand looked promising before the former fell to a Mustafizur off-cutter.
Chris Morris won the match-up against Andre Russell (9), dismissing him for the fourth time in T20s. Two balls later, he sent Karthik back with Sakariya taking a blinder at extra-cover. The South African finished with a four-wicket haul, his best in the IPL. Samson then took over for Royals.
