IPL 2020: KKR Vs RR – Morgan, Cummins Star As KKR Knock RR Out Of The Tournament

Dubai: Skipper Eoin Morgan’s fiery knock of 68 off 35 balls and a disciplined all-round bowling performance guided Kolkata Knight Riders to a 60-run win over Rajasthan Royals in game 54 of the Indian Premier League 2020 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Batting first, KKR reached a big score after a poor start. The team lost the first wicket on 1 run. Nitish Rana returned to the pavilion without opening an account. After this, opener Shubman and Rahul shared a 72-run partnership for the second wicket. The team lost 4 wickets one after the other within 26 runs. Eoin Morgan’s late heroic performance guided the team to a respectable total of 191. Morgan hit six sixes and five fours in his innings. He was assisted by Andre Russell, who scored 25 off just 11 balls and by Pat Cummins (15 off 11 balls).

Chasing a target of 191, Rajasthan got off to a horrible start, losing half the team inside the powerplay. Pat Cummins was hit for 19 runs in his first over but he came back strong with the wickets of Robin Uthappa (6 off 2 balls), Ben Stokes (18 off 11 balls), Steve Smith (4 off 4 balls) and Riyan Parag (0). Rahul Tewatia and Jos Buttler built up a brief partnership in the middle overs, but the asking rate kept Kolkata on top throughout. Both Tewatia (31 off 27 balls)and Buttler (35 off 22 balls)were dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy and the team could only manage 131 at the end of 20 wickets.

With the defeat, the Steve Smith-men have officially been knocked out of the tournament. Kolkata have moved to the fourth spot in the points table and will have to depend on the favourable results of the final two matches between other franchises to retain a spot in the top four.