Rajasthan Royals (RR) faced the first defeat of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 with a 37-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Dubai on Wednesday.
KKR posted match-winning 174-6 in 20 overs after being asked to bat first. Shubman Gill (47), Eoin Morgan (34 not out), Andre Russell (24), and Nitish Rana (22), all got a good start but failed to convert it into a big one for Knight Riders. Jofra Archer was right on the money for the Royals with the figure of 2-18 in his four overs. Tom Curran (54 not out) late fire couldn’t save the Royals from the first defeat of the tournament.
Above all the individual excellence, we took Dinesh Karthik’s captaincy, supported by Morgan, as a real turnaround of the match. Royals have strong and experience top orders with the likes of Steve Smith, Jos Buttler, and Sanju Samson but slightly inexperienced lower-middle order.
Dinesh Karthik used his pace bowling weapons Pat Cummins (1-13) and Shivam Mavi (2-20) for three-over and four-over spell each straightaway and cashed in with the wicket of Smith, Buttler, and Samson which put huge pressure on their inexperience middle and lower-middle order. Our Turnaround board is here to justify our sentence.
Royals will be facing Royal Challengers Bangalore on Saturday while Knight Riders will face Delhi Capitals on the same date with the first doubleheader of the season.
