Opener Jason Roy’s half-century and captain Nitish Rana’s flamboyant innings, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 21 runs here in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday and broke the order of four consecutive losses. Chasing the Knight Riders’ target of 201, RCB’s team could only manage 179 for eight despite a half-century from captain Virat Kohli (54 off 37 balls, six fours). Apart from him, only Mahipal Lomror (34) and Dinesh Karthik (22) could cross the 20-run mark.
For the Knight Riders, leg-spinners Varun Chakraborty (3/27) and Suyash Sharma (2/30) took five wickets together. Andre Russell (2 for 29) also got two wickets. Knight Riders had earlier scored a strong score of 200 runs for five wickets with the innings of Jason Roy (56 runs in 29 balls, five sixes and four fours) and captain Rana (48 runs in 21 balls, four sixes, three fours). RCB got off to a bad start chasing the target and the team lost three wickets for 58 runs in the power play.
Captain Faf Duplesey (17), who landed as an impact player, hit Umesh Yadav for two consecutive sixes but Suyash’s ball was played in the hands of Rinku Singh at the boundary. Suyash then lbw Shahbaz Ahmed (02) while Glenn Maxwell (05) caught David Visa off the bowling of Chakraborty. Captain Kohli, however, stuck to one end. He opened the account with a four on debutant Vaibhav Arora and then hit Suyash for two consecutive fours. Lomror hit Sunil Narine for two sixes while Kohli hit Suyash for a four to complete his team’s century in the 11th over and then scored two runs in the same over to bring up his fifth half-century of the ongoing tournament in 33 balls.
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Lomror hit Chakraborty for his third six but was caught by Russell at the boundary on the next ball. He hit three sixes and a four in 18 balls. RCB got a big blow in the next over when Venkatesh Iyer took a brilliant catch of Kohli at the boundary off Russell. Suyash Prabhudesai was also run out after scoring 10 runs in nine balls, due to which the team’s score was 138 runs for six wickets. The hosts needed 63 runs in the last five overs. Only 15 runs were scored in the next two overs while Russell sent Wanindu Hasaranga (05) to the pavilion. Chakraborty’s next over yielded only four runs while Dinesh Karthik (22) gave a catch to Rinku, shattering RCB’s true hopes. RCB needed 44 runs in the last two overs and the team could not even get close to this score.
Earlier, Kohli invited the Knight Riders to bat first after winning the toss, after which Roy and Jagadishan added a quick 83 runs for the first wicket. Roy hit Mohammad Siraj (one for 33) for two fours in the first over and also hit a four in his next over. Jagadishan also opened the account with a four on David Willey and then in his next over, he got the ball to see the boundary twice.
Roy welcomed Shahbaz Ahmed with four sixes as the Knight Riders scored 66 runs without losing a wicket in the power play. Roy completed his second consecutive half-century in just 22 balls with a single off Visakh. Jagadishan, however, was caught by Willey at the boundary in the next over of Vijaykumar Visakh (2/41) trying to play a big shot. He hit four fours in 29 balls. Visakh also bowled Roy on the last ball of the same over to score Knight Riders 88 for two in 10 overs. Venkatesh Iyer completed the team’s century in the 12th over with two fours off Wanindu Hasaranga (2/24).
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In Visakh’s next over, Rana was lucky when Siraj dropped a simple catch at long-off. Taking advantage of the lifeline, Rana brought Visakh’s ball to the audience at long off. Rana got a second life in Siraj’s over and this time Harshal Patel dropped the catch at fine leg. The Knight Riders captain took advantage of this lifeline with two sixes in the over. Rana scored 17 runs off Visakh in the 17th over with two fours and a six in consecutive balls. However, in the next over, he was caught by Visakh off the bowling of Hasranga. Hasaranga also got Iyer (31) caught by Glenn Maxwell in the same over. Rinku Singh (18 not out in 10 balls) hit a six and two fours in consecutive balls of Siraj in the 19th over while in the last over, David Voisey (12 not out in three balls) hit Harshal for two sixes to reach the team’s score of 200 runs. .
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