Kolkata Knight Riders toyed with the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's bowlers for 16.5 overs to score an impressive seven-wicket win at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Thursday, March 29. Chasing 183 to win, KKR remained way ahead of the asking rate all through their innings. Venkatesh Iyer kept KKR in control after openers Sunil Narine and Phil Salt had set the tone of the match in the powerplay. Faf du Plessis and his bowlers were clueless even in defending a healthy target.
KKR off the mark with a bang
Openers Phil Salt and Sunil Narine redirected the match and the momentum towards KKR with their combined attack in the power play. RCB had posted 61 in their first six overs while KKR in response hit 85/0 at the same stage; the 9.15 asking rate at the start of the innings dropping to 6.92. RCB did not recover from those early blows.
Salt had opened with a bang, realising the first over by Mohd Siraj for 18 with two sixes and a four. Soon Narine started celebrating his landmark 500th T20I with some fireworks. He lived up to his defined role as a makeshift opener, slamming 47 off only 22 balls with five sixes and two fours, before being denied a deserving fifty by Mayank Dagar. The left-arm spinner from Himachal Pradesh gave RCB the much-needed breakthrough.
Salt too followed Narine eight deliveries and six runs later, guiding Vijaykumar Vyshak to the Cameron Green at the deep square leg boundary. At 92 for 2, the job was almost done for KKR by their opening pair.
Venkatesh Iyer kept the good work going
KKR veteran Venkatesh sealed the game with his 30-ball fifty. The left-handed batter maintained the big hitting, slamming three fours and four sixes, in his absolute domination when skipper Shreyas played the support cast. On Iyer’s departure at 163/3 in 15.1 overs, KKR needed just 16 of 29 deliveries – an ask they would have achieved blind-folded given the struggle of the frontline RCB bowlers.
RCB vs KKR IPL 2024 Key Moments: Venkatesh Iyer powers Knight Riders to big win at Bengaluru
Skipper Shreyas finished it off with a six, 13th of the innings, for the second straight win for KKR, which also halted the nine-match sequence of home teams’ win in the tournament so far.
Big guns did not blaze for RCB
Mohd Siraj and Alzarri Joseph, two frontline RCB bowlers, failed to make an impact. When Siraj returned for his second spell, after having conceded 29 runs in his first two overs, Venkatesh welcomed him with a pull over the midwicket. Vijaykumar Vyashak (4-0-23-1) was the only silver lining in the RCB attack.
Earlier, Virat Kohli's brilliance, coupled with a below par fielding by KKR, allowed hosts RCB, who were put in to bat first, post 182 for six in 20 overs, even as three home team batters - Faf du Plessis (8), Rajat Patidar (3) and Anuj Rawat (3) - scored in single digits.
The class apart Virat Kohli act
Vintage Kohli stood out in the RCB innings, as usual. Even when other big names struggled to connect, erring in judging the pace, trajectory and movement of the ball, Kohli’s power packed hits connected perfectly, as if he was batting against a different attack in different conditions.
When others struggled to connect, he was hitting from the middle of the bat. The innings was education in motion for budding cricketers for footwork, placement, use of the batting crease, shot selection and hard hitting with clinical precision.
Kohli couldn’t have made a mistake this evening. Even when converting ones into twos, or stealing a cheeky single, himself running to the danger end, the RCB icon beat the ball-wicket contact by the friction of a second.
His dance moves at the end of the innings were well earned. In carrying the bat, 15th time in the IPL, he had witnessed six batters depart from the other end. Kohli returned smiling, unconquered with the figures opposite his name in the score sheet reading 83* runs, 59 balls, four 4s, four 6s and SR 140.67.
Dinesh Karthik the finisher
Dinesh Karthik came to the party late, but that has been his preferred fun time to bat in T20s. The seasoned pro with a career death over strike rate of 185.7, struck 8-ball 20 with three sixes, the pace of strike being 250 runs per 100 balls. Big partnerships were hard to come by in the RCB innings, except for the 65-run, second-wicket stand between Kohli and Cameron Green (33, 21b, four 4s, two 6s).
Kohli also added 41 runs for the third with Glenn Maxwell, courtesy butter-fingered KKR fielders – first Ramandeep Singh dropped the Aussie all-rounder on 12 off Narine, who was the next to give him reprieve seven balls later. The third time turned out to be unlucky for Maxwell, when he found the safe hands of Rinku Singh after 19-ball 28. The Caribbean all-rounder Narine was again in the picture, as the bowler.
Is Mitchell Starc the right choice?
KKR’s investment on Mitchell Starc, over Rs 1.75 crore per match, will soon become questionable, if the Australian pacer doesn't find his rhythm . For the second successive match, he turned out to be a weak link in the KKR bowling, conceding 47 in four overs without success, including 16 in the last, with two sixes.
Amidst average bowling, the little heralded left-arm spinner Anukul Roy did an outstanding job, conceding only six runs in his two overs. Didn't he deserve one more? Skipper Shreyas must be wondering!
RCB’s 182 for six at the end of the innings meant, KKR will have to pull off some special efforts with the bat. They did it right on the onset of their innings.
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