Shubman Gill scored a fine half century as Kolkata Knight Riders kept their playoffs hopes alive by thumping the Rajasthan Royals by 86 runs at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
After being asked to bat first by RR skipper Sanju Samson, KKR pair of Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer got their side off to a solid start. The duo put on 79 runs for the first wicket before Rahul Tewatia drew first blood by dismissing Iyer bowled for 38.
Nitish Rana (12) smashed Glenn Phillips for a four and a six before he was holed out at extra cover.
Gill reached his second consecutive fifty before falling to Chris Morris caught at covers by Jaiswal for 56.
The likes of Rahul Tripathi (21), Eoin Morgan (13*), and Dinesh Karthik (14*) scored some useful runs down the order to take Knight Riders to 171/4 in their allotted 20 overs.
Chasing 172, Rajasthan Royals started badly by losing Yashasvi Jaiswal in the first over to Shakib Al Hasan for a duck.
RR skipper Sanju Samson (1) flicked a Shivam Mavi delivery to Morgan at mid wicket.
Lockie Ferguson on his comeback claimed wickets of Liam Livingstone and Anuj Rawat to reduce RR to 13/4.
Glenn Phillips, Shivam Dube and Chris Morris also departed cheaply leaving Rajasthan in tatters at 35/7.
Rahul Tewatia and Jaydev Unadkat put on 27 runs for the eight wicket before the latter was caught at deep point by Shakib.
Tewatia scored 44 off 36 deliveries before he bottom edged a Shivam Mavi delivery on to his stumps as Royals were bundled out for 85 in 16.1 overs, giving Knight Riders a massive 86 run win.
Mavi was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/21, while Ferguson claimed 3 wickets.