Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets to record their first victory in the current season in the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday (March 30).
In defending a modest 129-run target, Kolkata Knight Riders needed some early wickets. Umesh Yadav took precisely that, dismissing RCB opener Anuj Rawat with an unlucky duck caught behind the wicketkeeper Sheldon Jackson in the first over.
Virat Kohli came into the bat and hit Umesh Yadav to score two straight boundaries. In the next over, Tim Southee got the wicket of RCB captain Faf du Plessis, who Ajinkya Rahane caught to score 4.
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Umesh, bowled with two boundaries in a row with Kohli during the earlier over, made a fantastic comeback to dismiss Kohli, the previous RCB captain who was snatched behind by the keeper Jackson for 12. He left Bangalore in a tizzy state at 17-3-3.
RCB badly needed a team as David Willey and Sherfane Rutherford precisely did that to push the team’s total to the 50-run mark within eight overs.
Spinner mystery Sunil Narine broke the 45-run partnership, dismissing Willey for 18 after being caught by Nitish Rana. RCB were unable to take their fourth wicket with 62.
Shahbaz Ahmad joined Rutherford, and the pair batted well to boost the team’s total to the triple-figure mark within the sixth over. The Rutherford was the Rutherford – Ahmed duo that would take this RCB squad to victory.
Varun Chakravarthy hit as the keeper Jackson stump Shahbaz Ahmed for 27 from 20 balls. Bangalore fell to their 5th wicket, which was 101.
Southee was called back in the attack, and the Kiwi pacer dealt an unforced blow to RCB, dropping well set Rutherford to 28 while Wanindu Hasaranga to 4 . Bangalore dropped seven wickets to 111 and needed 18 more to prevail.
When the game could have ended in any direction, Harshal Patel came in to bat and struck 2 boundaries during the 19th, and 19th overs as RCB required 7 runs to win the final over.
A seasoned wicket-keeper, Dinesh Karthik, struck an unbeaten six and an unbeaten boundary to conclude the match in the direction of RCB in beating KKR with three wickets.
KKR’s TOP ORDER COLLAPSED
The Kolkata batters were the cause of their fall. In their quest to strike with a hammer against everything that came at them, they fell when trying to make a lot of strokes rather than adjusting to the game’s situation.
Bangalore’s seamers have found the ideal length for a tacky pitch, barely shy of a proper length, with bounce coming in the direction. Kolkata dropped the openers Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane in the power-play as Iyer tried to push an unintentional long delivery of Akash Deep towards the leg side and then for the top edge to be hit by the bowler to his left. Rahane could not time the release of a short ball coming from Mohammed Siraj straight to deep square leg.
Deep’s fast short ball, with a nip to the side, was a slam on Nitish Rana after a miscued strike over the leg was caught by Willey coming back from behind square leg before sliding to finish the catch in the last over of the power-play.
Kolkata’s woes grew when Shreyas Iyer was hammered into the long-on of Hasaranga. Sunil Narine produced some fireworks by hitting Deep for a four-over mid-off and six on the keeper’s head.
However, a sloppy hit to an unruly ball was the cause of Narine’s missing a reverse to point at Hasaranga at the end of the ninth. The batsman castled Sheldon Jackson with a beautiful googly in the next ball. Russell was, however, had different plans. He began by slog-sweeping Hasaranga over deep mid-wicket.
Patel hit four balls of the evening which forced Sam Billings to hit his shorter long ball short to the long-on. Russell was then able to punish Ahmed by slamming sixes into the deep mid-wicket and long-off.
However, Patel was frustrated with Russell with four dots in the fourth ball. The pacer was his man, as the right-hander with enormous hitting attempted to throw a small ball from off-stump into off-side, but he got the edge in front of Karthik.
Hasaranga lost his fourth wicket when Southee was sunk to the long-on. Yadav and Chakravarthy scored two boundaries to push Kolkata beyond 120. Yadav hit Deep for the six and four, after which the pacer killed the stand at 27 runs by removing his leg-stump using the yorker.
Summary Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders: 128 all out in 18.5 overs (Andre Russell 25, Wanindu Hasaranga 4/20; Akash Deep 3/45, Harshal Patel 2/11), Royal Challengers Bangalore:132 for 7 in 19.2 overs (Sherfane Rutherford 28, Shahbaz Ahmed 27; Tim Southee 3/20, Umesh Yadav 2/16).
