A brilliant batting display from Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) helped them register their third straight victory in the ongoing IPL 2021 edition. RCB who has all their 3 games so far this year is the only team to yet bag a defeat this season. They have defeated defending champions Mumbai Indians in their first game and defeated Sun Risers Hyderabad in their second game before thumping KKR in this game!
Having opted to bat first, RCB made an awful start to their innings losing both Virat Kohli (5 off 6) and Rajat Patidar (1 off 2) in just the 2nd over of their innings. Then Glenn Maxwell (78 off 49) and AB de Villiers (76* off 34) shouldered the responsibility and succeeded in getting them to a massive total. The 86-run stand for the 3rd wicket between Maxwell and Devdutt Padikkal, the 53-run stand for the 4th wicket between Maxwell and AB and the unbeaten 56*-run stand for the fifth wicket between AB and Kyle Jamieson helped them reach 204/4 in 20 overs.
Varun Chakravarthy was KKR’s pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets in his 4 overs while Pat Cummins and Prasidh Krishna with a wicket each were the other wicket-takers in KKR’s bowling line-up. Andre Russell who bagged a 5-for in their previous game against Mumbai Indians bagged the worst figures in this match. He conceded 38 runs from just his 2 overs at the death.
Chasing a massive target, KKR openers came out with positive intent. Shubman Gull scored 21 runs off just 9 deliveries to give them a head start. However, KKR never really recovered in the chase with wickets falling at regular intervals. There are four scores in the 20s and 30+ score but none of them got going which meant KKR lost the match with a massive 38-run deficit. Harshal Patel was the pick of RCB with 2 wickets in his 4 overs while conceding just 17 runs.
RCB middle-order player AB de Villiers (76* off 34 balls, 9 fours, 3 sixes) has been adjudged as the Player of the Match for his brilliant batting during the death overs that helped RCB to a massive total. With this victory, RCB strengthened their position at the top of the points table with 3 wins in as many games.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore – 204/4 in 20 overs (Glenn Maxwell – 78, Varun Chakravarthy – 2/39) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders – 166/8 in 20 overs (Andre Russell – 31, Kyle Jamieson – 3/41) by a margin of 38 runs
Toss: RCB won the toss and opted to bat first
Teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Nitish Rana, Shubman Gill, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Shakib Al Hasan, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Harbhajan Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
0 Comments