Images from the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, in Mumbai, on Saturday.
Rajasthan Royals came up with a fine all-round performance to get the better of Kolkata Knight Riders and register their second victory in the Indian Premier League, at the Wankhede stadium, in Mumbai, on Saturday.
Opting to field, Chris Morris took four wickets as the Royals restricted the Knight Riders to a paltry 133 for 9, and then chased down the target in 18.5 overs.
Skipper Sanju Samson steered his team home with a responsible innings of 42 not out off 41 balls, while David Miller stroked 24 from 23 balls.
Varun Chakravarthy, was KKR's most successful bowler, with two wickets for 32 runs.
KKR slipped to bottom after their fourth straight defeat, while Royals moved up to sixth with their second victory in five outings.
Rajasthan Royals went in with a new opening pair in Jos Buttler and the young Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Shivam Mavi got the bowling underway for KKR, who needed a few early wickets to get back into the contest.
Rajasthan introduced spin in the fourth over with Varun Chakravarthy in the attack. The first ball was pitched up and Buttler did well to drill it through the covers for a four.
However, the England batsman was dismissed next ball after he failed to read the delivery spinning into him and was given out leg before wicket for five. Rajasthan were 21-1 in the third over.
Jaiswal settled down and hit a couple of good boundaries, but just when he got going, he lapsed in concentration and was dismissed by Shivam Mavi. A well-pitched up delivery angled away from the left-hander, and Jaiswal's slap over cover went straight into the hands of substitute Kamlesh Nagarkoti, at deep cover.
Jaiswal was out for 22 off 17 balls, which included 5 fours and Rajasthan Royals 41-2 after five overs.
Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube steadied the innings, the latter hitting Sunil Narine for a six in the sixth over as the Royals scored 50 form the powerplay overs.
The pair put on 45 runs off 39 balls for the third wicket before Varun Chakravarthy cut short Dube’s innings.
The right-arm leg spinner, bowling the fifth delivery of his third over, got the ball to spin away and Dube went for big slog across the line, got a leading edge and was caught by Prasidh Krishna at short third man. Dube was out for 22 off 18, which included 2 fours and a six and Rajasthan 85 for 3 after 11 overs.
They continued to self-destruct. With just 14 more runs added to the total Rahul Tewatia had to walk back after scoring 5 off 8 balls. The batsman tried to pull Krishna, bowling his first over, and got a top edge, which was taken by Nagarkoti at fine leg. Just four runs came from the 14th over as the Royals were struggling at 101 for 4.
At 113 for 4 after 16, Rajasthan Royals needed 21 more for victory. KKR got Cummins back for the 17th over. David Miller, who came in at the fall of Tewatia’s wicket, hit the Australian for a four off the second delivery, but he and Samson could only get 8 from the over.
Krishna then conceded just 8 off the 18th over, Miller scoring 7, including a four off it, leaving Rajasthan 5 to get off the last 12 deliveries.
Miller got two more runs before Samson tapped the fifth delivery to deep square leg for a single as Rajasthan Royals won comfortably in the end by six wickets.
Earlier, Morris was effective at the death yet again as Rajasthan Royals restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 133 for 9.
The most expensive buy in IPL history at Rs 16.25 crore (Rs 162.5 million), the South African pacer proved his worth with a four-wicket haul as Rajasthan's bowlers turned in a clinical display to stifle the Kolkata Knight Riders batsmen with clever change of pace.
He finished with figures of 4-1-23-4, even as Jaydev Unadkat (1/25), Chetan Sakariya (1/31) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/22), the other pacers, did well to check the flow of runs.
Nitish Rana (22), Rahul Tripathi (36 off 26), Dinesh Karthik (25) battled gamely after the loss of early wickets to enable the Knight Riders put up a fighting total.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders opened with Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill, while Jaydev Unadkat, who returned to the team, got the bowling underway for Rajasthan Royals.
The pair did well and raised hopes of KKR making a good start as they raised 23 runs after the first five overs. However, a run-out ended the partnership.
Gill attempted a quick single on the off-side off Mustafizur Rahman’s fourth delivery in the sixth over, but Jos Buttler did well field the ball and strike a direct underarm hit from the covers with one stump to aim at. Gill was out for 11.
KKR lost an early wicket before ending the first six overs with just 25 on the board.
Left-arm pacer Chetan Sakariya, who sent down the second over, returned to the attack in the ninth and struck with his first delivery.
Rana, who got a start, threw it away after playing 25 balls. He slashed hard and saw the top-edge go to wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, who took the offering over his head.
Rana was out for 22 off 25 balls, which included a four and six. KKR were 45-2 in the ninth over.
Sunil Narine was promoted to No 4 with the hope of him scoring a few boundaries to break the shackles. He got going immediately, lofting the first ball he faced from Unadkat over the off-side for a four, but, going for another one off the fifth, he perished, caught by Jaiswal, who ran in from fine leg, dived forward and pulled off a stunning catch.
Narine scored 6 off 7 balls as KKR were 55-3 at the half-way mark.
It got worse when captain Eoin Morgan was run-out for a duck without facing a delivery.
Rahul Tripathi hit a full delivery from Chris Morris straight back and it gbagged four wicket ot deflected by non-striker Morgan’s bat.
There was a huge misunderstanding as Tripathi took off for a run and so did Morgan. The ball rolled close to Morris, who calmly broke the stumps at the non-striker's end. Morgan was unable to make his crease after a late no from Tripathi.
KKR’s top order failed again and they were reeling at 61 for 4 in the 11th over.
Dinesh Karthik, who replaced Morgan, and Tripathi hit some useful boundaries before Mustafizur, who returned for his third over, ended Tripathi’s gallant fight.
Tripathi failed to read a slower delivery from Mustafizur and hit him high towards deep square leg, where Riyan Parag took the skier comfortably.
Tripathi was out for 36 off 26 balls, including a four and 2 sixes, and KKR were 94 for 5 in the 16th over.
Andre Russell, brought up KKR’s 100 with a single, before hitting Morris for a six off the second delivery of the 18th over. But the South African had the last laugh, dismissing the West Indian with his fourth delivery, caught by David Miller on the long-on boundary.
Russell was out for 9 off 7 and KKR down to 117 for 6.
Morris struck again with the last delivery of the 18th over, this time ending the fight of a well-set Karthik, who went big only to see Sakariya time his leap to perfection in the covers and pull off a stunning catch.
Karthik was out for 25 off 24 balls, including 4 fours.
Morris picked his third wicket, dismissing Pat Cummins in the 20th over.
He was hit for a six by the Aussie off the first ball, but perished off the next, caught by Parag at deep mid-wicket for 10 off 6 balls.
Morris went on to finish with four wickets after dismissing Shivam Mavi with the last delivery of the innings as KKR were restricted to 133 for 9.
His figures at the end read: 4-1-23-4, as KKR lost five wickets for 40 runs in the last five overs.
