Twitter Reactions: Samson, Miller, and Morris drive Rajasthan Royals to a comfortable win as KKR tumble to the bottom of the table

Rajasthan Royals broke their prolonged rut of losses in the IPL after Chris Morris’ four-wicket haul dented Kolkata Knight Riders, who perennially struggled to find any momentum with the bat. Having restricted the opponents to an underwhelming target, Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson ensured to stay till the end, playing anchor through an uncharacteristic 41-ball 42 alongside useful contributions from Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shivam Dube, and David Miller to chase the target with 6 wickets intact and 7 balls to spare.

Winning the toss, Samson inserted KKR to bat, although struggling to come to terms with a slightly sluggish track at the Wankhede Stadium, KKR was thwarted by a regular fall of wickets and lost their top-three batsmen at the half-way mark. Having labored his way to 11 from 19, Shubman Gill perished while trying to steal a single courtesy of an excellent throw from Jos Buttler.

Royals stymie KKR 

Crawling 25/1 after the end of the powerplay, Nitish Rana and Rahul Tripathi showed some attacking instincts, picking 12 off Jayadev Unadkat’s over, although KKR lost Rana, Sunil Narine, and Eoin Morgan in back-to-back overs to find themselves in a serious puddle of trouble.

The fall started with Rana (22 off 25) edging Chetan Sakariya behind, while Narine top-edged Unadkat to Yashasvi Jaiswal. They lost their skipper Eoin Morgan for a diamond duck in a sheer unfortunate manner as he deflected a ball hit by Rahul Tripathi to Chris Morris, which led to his run-out, and deepened the struggle for finding the absent momentum.

Where are you, Russell?

Quine inexplicably, KKR opted not to unleash Andre Russell despite their innings going nowhere. The Jamaican all-rounder came as late as 16th over of the KKR’s innings after the only batsman who looked slightly in the zone – Rahul Tripathi – edged Mustafizur Rahman to deep mid-wicket to end the 33-run stand with Dinesh Karthik.

KKR was reduced to 133/9 from 94/5 with Morris denting them severely in the death overs. Unable to repeat his heroics against CSK, when he had entered in the 6th over and smacked a 22-ball 54, Russell holed out to David Miller at long-on off Morris for a 9-ball 7. Two balls later Karthik found Sakariya at extra-cover and walked back with a 24-ball 25.

Morris finished with 4/23 by the last over, when he got Pat Cummins caught by Parag and cleaned up Shivam Mavi, restricting KKR to just 133/9.

Sanju Samson, David Miller take Royals across 

In for Manan Vohra, Jaiswal got a life on duck as Gill dropped him at backward point in the opening over of Royals’ response. He rubbed salts to KKR’s wounds, smacking consecutive fours in the following over, however, Varun Chakravarthy got the first breakthrough for the team as he pinged Jos Buttler (5 off 7) lbw soon, while Jaiswal holed out in the deep off Mavi to end his 17-ball 22, which included five fours.

Contrary to the unimposing powerplay yield of their opponents, Shivam Dube whacked Narine over midwicket for a six to take Royals to 50 by the end of the field restrictions. Both Samson and Dube looked in no rush during their 45-run alliance for the third wicket, which went until Chakravarthy got the latter caught as he tried to dispatch his googly, though, only to find Prasidh Krishna at short third-man.

While skipper Samson looked steadfast to not lose his wicket, the Riders tied the scoring and they smelled a slight comeback when Rahul Tewatia top-edged a short delivery from Krishna straight to fine-leg, where Nagarkoti made no mistake. Miller, however, ensured to avoid any mishap, contributing 24 from 23 in a run-a-ball 33-run stand to the team across the line.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: