Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan led from the front by scoring a blistering half century, as Knight Riders thumped the Rajasthan Royals by 60 runs at Dubai on Sunday.
Kolkata included Andre Russell for Ferguson and Shivam Mavi for Rinku Singh, while Rajasthan went in with an unchanged XI.
After being sent in by Steve Smith, KKR started badly by losing Nitish Rana to Jofra Archer in the very first over for a golden duck.
Shubman Gill and Rahul Tripathi stitched together a 72 run stand for the second wicket, before the former was caught by Jos Buttler off Rahul Tewatia for 36.
Sunil Narine who came at No 4 fell cheaply for a second ball duck.
Tripathi who looked good in his knock of 39, was dismissed by Shreyas Gopal. Tewatia became Karthik’s third victim, as KKR were struggling at 99/5.
The pair of Morgan and Russell added 45 runs for the sixth wicket, before the latter having smashed Kartik Tyagi for consecutive sixes was caught at deep cover by substitute David Miller for a breezy 25.
Pat Cummins in the end contributed by scoring a handy 15, as KKR ended up with an imposing total of 191/7 from 20 overs. Skipper Morgan remained unbeaten on 68 off 35 balls.
Chasing 192, Robin Uthappa, started his innings with a six, but fell in the very same over to Cummins holing out to Kamlesh Nagarkoti at the deep square leg boundary.
Ben Stokes became Australia’s second victim after Dinesh Karthik pulled off a fantastic one handed catch behind the stumps in the third over.
Skipper Steve Smith, Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag fell in quick succession as Royals were struggling at 37/5.
Jos Buttler and Rahul Tewatia added 43 runs for the sixth wicket, before the former was dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy for a quickfire 35.
Apart from Buttler, Tewatia and Shreyas Gopal were the only other contributors with the bat, as Rajasthan Royals limped to 131/9, giving Knight Riders a convincing 60 run win.
Spearhead Pat Cummins was Knight Riders best bowler with figures of 4/34, while Shivam Mavi and Varun Chakravarthy claimed 2 wickets each.