Kolkata Knight Riders returned to winning ways with an encouraging win over Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday. Kolkata Knight Riders snapped their four-match losing streak with a 21-win win over Royal Challengers Bangalore after Jason Roy produced a brilliant half-century of spin. The English opener led the show with a 29-ball 56 as the Kolkata Knight Riders batsmen fired in unison to battle 200/5 after RCB skipper Virat Kohli opted to bowl at home.
But the spin duo of Varun Chakravarthy (3/24) and rookie Suyash Sharma (2/30) struck a top before Andre Russell (2/29) broke Kohli’s resistance to restrict RCB to 179 for eight. The order created havoc.
The win propelled KKR (six points; eight matches) from the bottom half of the table to seventh, ahead of Mumbai Indians on net run rate. MI has a match in hand. RCB is fifth with eight points from eight matches.
Orange Cap, Purple Cap
RCB’s regular skipper Faf du Plessis continues to top the list of highest run-getters with 422 runs from eight matches. Kohli has scored 333 runs in eight matches after him. Mohammed Siraj of RCB is currently the joint-highest wicket-taker with 14 scalps along with Rashid Khan of Gujarat Titans. After this KKR’s Varun Chakraborty has 13 wickets.
Leading the side in the absence of Faf du Plessis, Kohli scored 54 off 34 balls to keep his hopes alive in the chase of 201 after du Plessis (17) fell cheaply to Glenn Maxwell (5).
But there was uproar when Venkatesh Iyer took a game-changing catch at deep midwicket boundary off Russell to dismiss Kohli.
He dived to his left and rolled but held on to the ball tightly as Kohli walked back in disbelief.
With 86 needed from 48 balls, Dinesh Karthik (22) was left to spearhead his chase but Chakravarthy had the last laugh when he took the experienced RCB keeper-batsman for his three wickets, and that was all. It’s over RCB.