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Cummins gets better of Smith as KKR triumph

Royals handed first defeat of the Indian Premier League as Kolkata's star recruit Pat Cummins gets prized wicket of Steve Smith

Pat Cummins got the better of Australian teammate Steve Smith in the Indian Premier League as the Kolkata Knight Riders handed the Rajasthan Royals their first defeat of the tournament.

Fast bowlers Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi ran through Royals' top order, while Cummins got the key wicket of Rajasthan captain Smith (caught behind for three), to fire Kolkata to a 37-run win on Wednesday.

"I spoke to him (Cummins) just then, he goes, 'You normally smack those in the nets'," Smith joked after play.

Image Id: 2F87751CEA6C4DD9B6080CD5866F4CEE Image Caption: 'You normally smack those in the nets' // BCCI/IPL

The 20-year-old Nagarkoti grabbed 2-13 while Mavi got the prized wickets of Sanju Samson (8) and Jos Buttler (21) to restrict Steve Smith's Rajasthan side to 9-137.

England's Tom Curran top-scored with 54 off 36 balls and was one of three Rajasthan batsman to reach double figures.

Cummins finished with 1-13 from three overs in an economical spell.

"It was a little different after seeing the wicket, thought it would be flat, but it was seaming around so I kept it tight," Mavi said. 

"I've played against some of these big players before, I knew what they would do so I made sure I just stuck to the lines and lengths."

Earlier, after being sent in to bat, Kolkata owed its total of 6-174 to Shubman Gill's 47 off 34 balls up front and Eoin Morgan's unbeaten 34 off 23 deliveries.

Jofra Archer pinned down Kolkata's batsmen with fine figures of 2-14 and had Gill caught off his own bowling in the 12th over.

Nagarkoti and Mavi's early strikes left Rajasthan reeling at 5-42 in the eighth over before Rahul Tewatia was clean bowled by leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy to make it 6-66 in the 11th over.

Curran reduced the margin of defeat with some late hitting that included successive sixes off Sunil Narine to complete his half century in an otherwise a disappointing performance by Rajasthan's top order batsmen.

"We lost too many wickets up front, a few of us probably thought we're still playing at Sharjah," said Smith. 

"We probably didn't adapt as well as we could have to the wicket and the dimensions. We'll wait and see about switching the XI around."

Kolkata's persistence with Narine as an opener failed for the third successive match when the West Indian allrounder played onto left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat in the fifth over and was clean bowled for 15.

Andre Russell (24 off 14 balls) and Nitish Rana (22 off 17 balls) couldn't capitalise on good starts but Morgan hit two sixes and a four which propelled Kolkata's total in the end.

It was Rajasthan's first loss in the tournament after it won both its previous games at Sharjah.

There is a four-way tie atop the leaderboard after all eight teams played three games each with Kolkata, Rajasthan, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore all having four points.

On Thursday, defending champion Mumbai Indians will take on Kings XI Punjab as both teams look for their second win in the tournament.