Kolkata Knight Riders 174 for 6 (Gill 47, Morgan 34*, Archer 2-18) beat Rajasthan Royals 137 for 9 (Curran 54*, Mavi 2-20, Nagarkoti 2-13, Chakravarthy 2-25, Cummins 1-13) by 37 runs
Jofra Archer ambushed Shubman Gill and Dinesh Karthik with blistering pace and bounce, but a collective effort from the Kolkata Knight Riders’ quicks trumped Archer’s 2 for 18 and handed the Rajasthan Royals their first defeat in IPL 2020. The result meant the Knight Riders jumped from seventh to second on the points table, opening up the tournament further.
After Steven Smith swiped at Pat Cummins and nicked him behind for three off seven balls, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti scythed through the line-up to leave the top-heavy Royals at 42 for 5 in the eighth over and effectively kill off their pursuit of 175.
Earlier in the evening, when Archer was rushing both Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell, it appeared like 174 was beyond the Knight Riders’ reach. Morgan was also pinged on the helmet by Ankit Rajpoot, but he shook that off and provided the finishing kick with an unbeaten 34 off 23 balls. Dinesh Karthik then rifled through his bowling options and made that total look a whole lot bigger as the Royals meandered to 137 for 9.
More to follow …