IPL 2024 At the M Chinnawamy Stadium, the Kolkata Knight Riders destroyed the Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 76 runs. Virat Kohli gave the hosts a fantastic start on a day full of pyrotechnics, but the KKR bowlers showed incredible bravery and rallied towards the finish to give the visitors momentum again. RCB scored 182 runs in the first inning, thanks, to put it mildly, to the extraordinary efforts of Anukul Roy and Harshit Rana.
While Kohli scored 83 runs off of 59 deliveries, the Royals faced difficulties since no other batsman was able to provide him with middle-of-the-tank support. While Dinesh Karthik and Cameron Green made brief appearances, RCB was unable to establish a partnership, which allowed KKR to limit them to 182 runs.
In the chase, KKR was off to a stunning start thanks to Sunil Narine and Phil Salt. Mohammed Siraj’s opening over saw Salt blast 18 runs, and Narine then took care of the rest. The seasoned all-rounder gave KKR the early lead with 47 runs off of 22 deliveries. Following his return to the pavilion, Venkatesh Iyer assumed the mantle and scored an outstanding fifty-seven runs.
Also read: Twitter Reactions: In Bengaluru, Sunil Narine kills the RCB with a 22-ball 47
However, they won the match by seven wickets and went to the top of the points table with Shreyas Iyer, who performed admirably and scored 39 runs off only 24 deliveries.
The one-man army that is Virat Kohli
Once again, Virat Kohli was the one to step up and assist RCB in putting up a respectable total on the board. Even though it was difficult for any batter to get going on a two-paced surface, the 35-year-old managed to score 83 runs in the midst of the inning. The cricket player shouldn’t be too concerned by his strike rate of 140.68, though, considering there wasn’t much help from the other end.
2. Narine returns with a new episode
In the Indian Premier League, batsman Sunil Narine made a triumphant comeback. He was oddly sent to open against Hyderabad by KKR, but the cricketer was unable to take advantage of the opportunity. But in the encounter at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, he caused chaos and hit sixes for enjoyment, which greatly contributed to the visitors’ victory.
3. Local bowlers demonstrated empathy
A total of 368 runs were made that evening, but domestic bowlers Vijaykumar Vyshak, Anukul Roy, and Harshit Rana rose to the occasion and demonstrated their abilities. Roy conceded just six runs in his two overs, but Rana claimed two vital wickets, those of Anuj Rawat and Faf du Plessis. Meanwhile, Vyshak removed Phil Salt from the game after conceding 23 runs in his four overs.
The losing skipper, Faf du Plessis, said:
Strange one, first innings we thought that the wicket was two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, the guys really struggled. We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew coming in. Looking at the way we batted in the first innings, even Virat was struggling to hit the ball due to the lack of pace. You can always say after the game, try one or two things but the way the two of them (Narine and Slat) batted, they put pressure on our bowlers.
They hit strong cricket shots and pretty much took the game away. With Narine there, you can’t go to spin, you want to use pace upfront. That’s also a really good match-up for Salt and the way he plays. They were excellent, really broke the game in the first six overs. Spinning options with Maxi and finger-spinning can be effective here, but at night there wasn’t too much spin, With left-hand, right-hand combination, it’s one of those things, you can bowl a spinner. We saw when Venky was playing, it felt like an easy hit against left-arm spin.
Ideally you want someone who can spin the ball both ways but with the set-up of our team tonight, we didn’t have that option. (On Vyshak) Very good, he hasn’t had opportunities.
We had a look in the first innings and thought about bringing in Karn Sharma. But we felt someone who could bowl really good slower balls is probably the most difficult bowler to face on this pitch. Dre Russ bowled 80% of his balls cutters. We took some learnings from that and he was the best bowler of the evening.
Winning skipper Shreyas Iyer said:
Coming here, getting those two sessions of practice, we were in a good shape from the previous game. Coming and hitting few balls, it felt comfortable from within. The way Russell came in and realised the wicket wasn’t giving much from bowlers, and went to slower ones, analysing the conditions on the spot was pleasing to the eye. The communication was brilliant. See when Narine comes in to open, he knows he has one job which is to clear the infield. Today we were contemplating whether to start with him or not but he did a brilliant job.
From one end, it was good to bat on. From the other end it was two paced. That was the communication we had in the middle and we passed it onto others. Would be spending a day tomorrow in Bangalore, and then go to Vizag. I’m not expecting much at this point of time – it’s just the start of the tournament. Want to enjoy each other’s success – that’s the plan for now.
POTM Sunil Narine said:
It’s a nice milestone (500 T20s). Hopefully 500 more to come. It’s just the self belief and the support staff giving the encouragement. Also the hard work. Powerplay over is the hardest over – just have to let that go and keep it tight. Helps when you win. Players have full freedom to do what they want to do.
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