In their homecoming game, the first match in Kolkata after nearly four years, KKR registered a massive 81-run win to jump to third place in the opening league standings.
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Spinners defending mammoth target of 205 runs Varun Chakraborty (4/15), Sunil Naren (2/16) and budding Suyash Sharma (3/30) took nine wickets as RCB were bowled out for just 123 runs in 17.4 overs.
As it happened: KKR vs RCB
Asked to bat first, KKR were also in trouble as they lost half their team for 89 runs in the 12th over. Shardul Thakur (29 of 68) and Rinku Singh (46 off 33) then added 103 runs for the sixth wicket off 47 balls to take the total to 200. KKR posted a challenging 204/7.
RCB batsmen then failed to cope with the spin attack and lost their in-form openers. Virat Kohli (21) and Faf du Plessis (23) in the powerplay overs to Narine and Chakravarthy respectively. Varun then chased down RCB by taking a double wicket in the 8th over, removing Glenn Maxwell and Harshal Patel.
Narine removed Shahbaz Ahmed in the ninth over to reduce RCB to 61/5. The visiting team failed to recover from there, which gave the hosts a big win.
Coming in at number seven, Thakur hit the joint fastest half-century of the season off 20 balls.
Thakur also took a wicket in his all-round performance in KKR’s first home match after almost four years.
RCB were chasing a massive target, scoring 44 without loss in 25 balls, before Narine collapsed Kohli (21; 18b) in his 150th IPL match in a brilliant performance.
Chakravarthy then struck a double blow, dismissing Maxwell (5) and Patel (0) in three balls before ending with impressive figures of 3.4-0-15-4.
Thereafter, it was 19-year-old leg-spinner Suyash, who made a dream debut after joining as an impact player in place of Venkatesh Iyer.
The long-haired mystery spinner took two wickets in an over to restrict KKR to 86/8.
Suyash got his first wicket when he deceived Anju Rawat (1) with a tossed delivery and in the space of three balls, he caught the prized delivery of Dinesh Karthik (9) with a fuller delivery.
After scoring an unbeaten 82 against Mumbai Indians, Kohli made a comeback in style by hitting the first ball of the innings against Umesh Yadav for a four.
On 42 for no loss, the RCB opening pair looked set for another easy chase when Narine initiated the collapse, clearing Kohli beautifully.
The star Indian missed the line completely as the ball turned sharply to knock over his stumps.
Earlier, David Willey (4-1-16-2) and Karn Sharma (3-0-26-2) took wickets in consecutive deliveries in the powerplay and middle overs respectively to give RCB an early lead.
Willey exposed KKR’s fragile top-order when the England left-arm pacer dismissed Venkatesh Iyer (3) and Mandeep Singh (0) off consecutive deliveries.
But RCB got off to a shaky start, Rahmanullah Gurbaz first hitting a 44-ball 57 against the wayward Akash Deep, his maiden IPL half-century.
It turned from bad to worse for KKR when RCB’s reverse sweeper Nitish Rana (1) got out on the very first ball after the powerplay after a good review.
KKR looked in trouble at 47/3, but Gurbaj led the charge against Bengal’s ‘local’ pacer Akash Deep, collecting back-to-back boundaries before hitting him for a six.
Gurbaj took a review to overturn the LBW decision on 30 and brought up his 38-ball fifty with a powerful sweep over the long-leg boundary.
But RCB seized the momentum again when leg-spinner Sharma delivered back-to-back deliveries to Gurbaj and Russell in the 12th over.
After this, Thakur took Akash Deep to the cleaners with the help of nine fours and three sixes.
Apart from Willey (4-1-16-2), none of the RCB bowlers failed to impress and Akash Deep conceded 30 runs in his two overs. Siraj also looked wayward and returned with 1/44 from his four overs. He also looted 23 runs in the extra.
(With inputs from PTI)