Kolkata Knight Riders traveled to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore to take on Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 29th match of IPL 2018. The hosts were in desperate need of a win to get their campaign back on track but KKR ruined their party and at the end, clinched the game quite comfortably.
Batting first after losing the toss, RCB managed to score 175/4 courtesy a magnificent half-century by the captain Virat Kohli. The pitch wasn’t the easiest to score runs on and the target should have been difficult for KKR. But the visitors went past the line in the last over due to a steady knock from Chris Lynn who shattered the hearts of thousands present at the venue.
Let’s take a look at the 5 takeaways from the game
#1 McCullum-de Kock’s steady opening stand
AB de Villiers was ruled out of the game as he was unwell which meant that Brendon McCullum was brought in as the last minute replacement. The Kiwi hadn’t had a good time in the limited opportunities he had got thus far. But the former international utilized the chance and, along with Quinton de Kock, provided a good start for RCB.
The duo took the score to 40 without loss at the end of the powerplay and then to 67 from 8 overs. Their stand was broken when de Kock was removed by Kuldeep Yadav for 29. McCullum carried on to make 38 off 28 balls and got out at the halfway stage. Opening with these two might be the way to go for RCB in the upcoming games.
#2 Virat Kohli’s superlative knock
The RCB skipper had walked in to bat in the 10th over after the opening pair had added 67 runs. It was not the usual Chinnaswamy pitch where the batsmen could hit through the line collect sixes. It was slow and the run-making was seemingly difficult. But it didn’t affect Virat Kohli and he looked at his usual best.
The right-hander initially played slowly to get the feel of the deck. He rotated the strike well and once he got his eye in, began to crank it up. He took to Andre Russell in the 18th over and slammed a couple of effortless sixes and brought up a half-century. It was due to his solitary effort of 68 off 44 balls that helped RCB reach a respectable 175/4 at the end.
#3 Sunil Narine’s indifferent day
It doesn’t happen too often that Sunil Narine goes for plenty with the ball. He is one of the most difficult batsmen to score runs off on most occasions. But it was one of those rare days when the RCB batsmen went after him and he was left wicketless. Initially, Quinton de Kock took a liking to him and then Mandeep Singh smashed 2 sixes in his last over to hamper his figures to 38/0 from 4 overs.
Then it was Narine’s turn with the bat as he is the prominent opener for KKR these days. He was swinging his bat at everything and literally teased the RCB fielders. All the edges somehow fell in no man’s land and he rode his luck to 27 from 19 until he was finally caught at the long-off boundary by Colin de Grandhomme off the bowling of Murugan Ashwin.
#4 Chris Lynn’s sweeping fifty
The track was offering massive turn for the RCB spinners. Chris Lynn is an explosive batsman but he is not that good a batsman against spin as compared to that against pace. Instead of using his feet to get to the pitch of the ball, he used the tactic of sweeping everything that came his way.
Lynn kept sweeping Yuzvendra Chahal and Murugan Ashwin to smother the spin and gave the square leg fielder a run for his money. Even though it didn’t look the most pleasant yet it worked wonders for the Australian as he managed to score an unbeaten 62 from 52 balls and won the game for KKR.
#5 RCB’s bowling failed again
It’s not a new thing that the RCB batsmen set up the score and the bowlers fail to back them up. The same old story repeated itself against KKR as well. It was not the easiest surface to bat on and the score of 175 was a great effort by the batsmen. The experts believed that 160 could have been the par score and they ended up getting 15 more than that.
The pitch was offering plenty of spin and the hosts had a quality spinner in Yuzvendra Chahal. But the leg-spinner couldn’t make an impact and remained wicketless. Murugan Ashwin managed to bag a couple of wickets but he traveled for 9 runs an over. The move to bring in Tim Southee didn’t work and even Umesh Yadav remained without any luck.
Match Summary
Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and opted to bowl first
Royal Challengers Bangalore:Â 175/4 in 20 overs
Virat Kohli 68* (44), Brendon McCullum 38 (28)
Andre Russell 31/3 (3), Kuldeep Yadav 20/1 (4)
Kolkata Knight Riders:Â 176/4 in 19.1 overs
Chris Lynn 62* (52), Robin Uthappa 36 (21)
Murugan Ashwin 36/2 (4), Mohammed Siraj 40/2 (4)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 6 wickets
Player of the Match: Chris Lynn
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