Million-dollar man Chris Morris delivered in style to help Rajasthan Royals defeat Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.
The South African all-rounder was effective at the death, sending back names like Andre Russell (9) and Dinesh Karthik (25) in the same over. Morris also cleaned up Pat Cummins (10) and Shivam Mavi (5) to finish with figures of 4/23 in four overs.
Morris' previous four-wicket haul came six years ago against the same opposition at Brabourne. Surprisingly, he had registered the same figures (4/23) on that occasion too. Earlier this year in the mini-auction, Morris became the most expensive cricketer in IPL history, going for a whopping INR 16.25 crore.
It was a clinical bowling display by the entire Royals unit as Jaydev Unadkat (1/25), Chetan Sakariya (1/31) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/22) also shone with the ball.
Chasing a modest total at Wankhede, Royals suffered twin blows in the PowerPlay as they lost Jos Buttler (5) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (22) early. Royals fumbled a bit, losing Shivam Dube (22) and Rahul Tewatia (5) in quick succession before skipper Sanju Samson dropped the anchor.
Samson finished with an unbeaten 42, laced with 2 fours and a six, and David Miller scored 24* as Royals chased down the target with seven deliveries to spare. With this win, the Royals have jumped to the sixth spot on the points table while the Kolkata outfit has slumped to the bottom.
Kolkata's batting camp disappointed again as they lost Shubman Gill (11) and gathered just 24 runs in the first six overs. At the halfway mark, KKR were 61/4.
Rahul Tripathi hung around and scored 36 off 26 deliveries before falling prey to Mustafizur Rahman in the 16th over. Towards the end, Karthik chipped in with 25 from 24 but Morris' late flourish restricted KKR to 133/9 in 20 overs.
"We have done quite a lot of homework. He (Russell) got a 20-ball fifty in the last game, so he is hitting the ball sweetly and you have to be lucky and today I got lucky. Sometimes you have to hope that the guy mishits the ball," said Morris.
