Eoin Morgan struck an unbeaten 68 and Pat Cummins took four wickets as the Kolkata Knight Riders beat the Rajasthan Royals by 60 runs in Dubai on Sunday.
KKR were looking to produce a competitive total when they were sent in to bat by opposition captain Steve Smith and despite ducks for Nitish Rana, Sunil Narine and Dinesh Karthik they were able to provide a good platform for Morgan to explode thanks good contributions at the top of the order by Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi.
The England captain, though, was a man on a mission and needed only 35 deliveries to accumulate six sixes and five fours as KKR posted 191-7 in their 20 overs.
The Rajasthan run chase on the other hand was completely crushed by Cummins, who accounted for the big wickets of Robin Uthappa, Ben Stokes and Steve Smith as they slumped to 32-4 with Shivam Mavi also getting in on the act.
Cummins continued to be the big destroyer and when Jos Buttler departed the game was all but over for the Royals, who had fallen way behind the run rate.
The Australian quick would eventually finish with figures of 4-34 in his four-over spell, while Mavi and Varun Chakravarthy both took two wickets each that saw the Royals reach 131-9 in their 20 overs.
Despite looking like a contender at the start of the IPL campaign, Sunday’s defeat means the Royals will finish bottom of the log with two days of pool games remaining.
