Chris Morris starred for the second time this season for his side to show the world why Rajasthan Royals didn't hesitate to spend a whopper on him at the IPL auctions earlier this year and powered the Royals to thrash Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 wickets at the Wankhede stadium on Saturday.
Chasing a below par target of 134 runs at the Mumbai strip, Rajasthan walked into the field with a new opening combination of Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal. However, the Royals did not get an ideal start as Butter fell prey to Varun Chakravarthy in the 4th over after scoring just 5 off 7. Jaiswal did look in great touch as he scored 22 runs off 17 balls with 5 boundaries, but the youngster couldn't convert his start into a big score and got out to Shivam Mavi, who came in the side replacing Kamlesh Nagarkoti, in the fifth over.
RR captain Sanju Samson truly led from the front with his responsible inning to ensure two crucial points for his struggling side. He received good support from the other end by David Miller that guided RR to the finish line in the 19th over. Sanju Samson scored 42 off 41 balls without taking many chances and remained till the end to clinch this crucial win for the Royals. Miller scored 24 off 23 with 4 fours. Shivam Dube's 22 runs off 18 balls featuring 2 fours and a six also accounted for a significant contribution as the Royals sealed the victory by 6 wickets with 7 balls left.
Earlier RR had won the toss and invited KKR to bat first. KKR were off to a slow start as their openers despite taking their time at the crease couldn't score big. Shubnam Gill was the first to fall after getting run out by Jos Buttler, scoring 11 runs off 19 balls. Nitish Rana fell prey to Chetan Sakariya as he scored 22 of 25 balls. RR bowlers put up a disciplined show restricting the KKR scoring rate. Rahul Tripathi was the top scorer for his side with his 36 runs off 22 balls that featured 1 four and 2 sixes, followed by Dinesh Karthik who scored 25 runs off 24 balls. Suniel Narine ( 6 off 7 ) skipper Eoin Morgan (0) Andre Russell (9 off 7) all put up disappointing shows. Chris Morris finished his four over spell with the figures of 4/23 that included the crucial wickets of Morgan, Karthik, Russell along with Pat Cummins, who, as evident from his batting against CSK is also capable of inflicting serious damages to the opposition bowlers. RR bowlers thus restricted them to 133/9 in 20 overs in a game where both the teams were desperate for victories to pump life in their derailed IPL campaigns.
