MUMBAI – Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders by six wickets to move off last place in the Indian Premier League on Saturday but England's Jos Buttler took a worrying high speed blow to the head.
The Rajasthan opener lost sight of a ball from Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins and it struck him on the jaw.
A team physio carried out a concussion check on the pitch and Buttler carried on, but he was out lbw nine balls later to spinner Varun Chakravarthy for five.
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That's that from Match 18 of #VIVOIPL as @rajasthanroyals win by 6 wickets to register their second win of the season.
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 24, 2021
Scorecard - https://t.co/ouszimFkdo #RRvKKR pic.twitter.com/JcLflXxXzT
Rajasthan have already lost England stars Ben Stokes and Jofra Archer to injury and have struggled this year.
Rajasthan captain Sanju Samson hit 42 off 41 balls and rising 19-year-old star Yashasvi Jaiswal hit 22 from 17 balls as the bottom side passed Kolkata's 133 for nine in 19 overs. Shivam Dube also hit 22 and the victory lifted Rajasthan to sixth place with two wins in five games.
Kolkata, led by England's Twenty20 captain Eoin Morgan, suffered badly from ineffective batting and are now eighth-placed with just one win from five games.
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Rajasthan's Chris Morris, the IPL's most expensive foreign player, took four for 23 after Kolkata made a slow start.
Morgan was run out without facing a ball in a mixup with Rahul Tripathi. Tripathi went on to make 36 and Dinesh Karthik 25 but coach Brendon McCullum acknowledged that his side was failing to make runs.
Morgan said Kolkata were 40 runs from a competitive score on the Mumbai pitch and they had missed an important chance for a second win. "The batting let us down and we lacked a lot of intent throughout the whole innings," he said.
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IPL leaders Royal Challengers Bangalore will be looking for a fifth straight win on Sunday against three-time champions Chennai Super Kings.
AFP