Sunil Narine hammered a 22-ball 47, Venkatesh Iyer struck his first half-century of the season while skipper Shreyas Iyer also got into runs as Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by seven wickets and broke the trend home-team wins in Indian Premier League 2024, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday.
After Narine set the tone for KKR with a blazing innings on a pitch that had eased out in the second innings with the dew too playing a role, Venkatesh (50) and Shreyas (39 not out) ensured KKR won with a bit of gas still in the tank.
It was an emphatic victory for KKR as they won with 19 balls to spare and maintained their domination of Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy, winning their sixth successive match at RCB’s home. This is their second win in as many matches this season. KKR thus moved to the second spot on the points table behind Chennai Super Kings. RCB suffered their second defeat in three games and how they lost will leave them disappointed.
KKR bowled superbly on a good pitch, using short-of-the-length off-cutters to restrict RCB to 182/6 boosted by a superb unbeaten 83 by former skipper Virat Kohli, who batted through the innings. Cameron Green and Dinesh Karthik contributed breezy cameos and with Kohli anchoring the innings, hitting four boundaries and four maximums, RCB recovered well to put up a decent total. Andre Russell was the best KKR bowler with 2-29.
Chasing 183, KKR came out firing on all cylinders with West Indies all-rounder Sunil Narine hammering 47 off 22 balls in his 500th T20 game while Phil Salt contributed a 20-ball 30.
With Salt and Narine going great guns, Kolkata Knight Riders blazed to 85 runs in the Power-play, leaving the RCB bowling unit shell-shocked. Narine started the carnage as he blazed five sixes and two boundaries, starting from the first over itself. Salt kept up the scoring rate as he struck two fours and two sixes to provide good support to Narine.
Narine had not scored much in the last few matches but made the occasion count as he unleashed the power and smashed the ball to all corners of the ground. Pacers Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal, and Alzarri Joseph faced the brunt of their assault. Joseph conceded 34 runs off two overs while Siraj gave away 46 off three and Dayal finished with 1-46 off four overs.
Narine was the first to go as he was bowled by Mayank Dagar with a superb yorker on off-stump that crashed into the base of the stump. Salt departed soon, caught by Cameron Green off Vijaykumar Vyshak, who was the best RCB bowler on the night as he finished with 1-23 off four overs.
Down 92/2, KKR were in a spot of bother, but Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer came together to raise 74 runs for the third wicket, with Iyer doing the bulk of the scoring. He scored 50 off 30 balls, despite being hampered by back trouble, as he struck three boundaries and four maximums. Shreyas gave him good company, scoring 39 off 24 balls. Venkatesh, who blasted a 106m six during his innings, was out in the 16th over as he tried to hit Yash Dayal out of the ground but managed only to find Virat Kohli at the cow corner, dragging the shot as Dayal cut the pace and picked short of length outside off-stump.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 182/6 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 83 not out, Cameron Green 33; Andre Russel 2-29, Harshit Rana 2-39) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 186/3 in 16.5 overs (Sunil Narine 47, Venkatesh Iyer 50, Shreyas Iyer 39 not out; Vijaykumar Vyshak 1-23) by seven wickets.
