Dinesh Karthik’s brilliant 97 went in vain, as Kolkata Knight Riders suffered their sixth consecutive loss against Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Thursday.
Kolkata included Prasidh Krishna and Carlos Brathwaite in place of Cariappa while Rajasthan brought back Varon Aaron and Oshane Thomas for Dhaval Kulkarni and Ashton Turner.
After being sent into bat by Rajasthan skipper, the visitors got of to a perfect start as Aaron dismissed Chris Lynn in the first over for a duck.
Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana added 30 runs for the second wicket, before the former was bowled by 29 year old Aaron.
Nitish Rana who looked good in his innings of 21, was dismissed by Shreyas Gopal after the powerplay. Dinesh Karthik who promoted himself at No 4 took time to settle, as he along Sunil Narine added 38 runs for the fourth wicket, before Narine was run out for 11.
Kolkata Knight Riders impact player Andre Russell looked out of sorts in his run a ball 14, in which he was given a reprieve twice but failed to make most of the opportunity as fell to Thomas.
KKR skipper Karthik got into the groove and attacked the Rajasthan Royals bowlers by scoring an unbeaten 97, as Kolkata Knight Riders posted a competitive 175/6 in their allotted 20 overs.
Aaron was Royals best bowler as he claimed 2/20 in their allotted 4 overs, while Thomas, Gopal and Jaydev Unadkat bagged a wicket each.
Chasing a target of 176, the pair of Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson added a quickfire 53 runs in 5.2 overs, before Rahane was dismissed leg before wicket to Narine for a quickfire 34.
The home side lost went wickets of Samson and Steve Smith, Ben Stokes and Stuart Binny in succession as Royals were looking down the barel at 98/5.
Shreyas Gopal scored a quickfire 18 off 8 balls, before he was caught by young Shubman Gill of Krishna.
The 17 year old Parag along with Jofra Archer attacked the KKR bowlers and turned the game in the favour of the visitors by putting on 44 runs for the seventh wicket, before Russell dismissed the former for a breezy 47.
With 9 requiring off 6 balls, Archer finished the game by scoring a six and a four as Royals reached the target of 176 with 4 balls to spare.
Piyush Chawala was Knight Riders best bowler as he claimed 3/20 in 4 overs, while Narine claimed 2 wickets.
Varun Aaron was declared the Man of the Match.
The 44th Match of the Indian Premier League will be played between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians at Chennai on 26 April, Friday.