Picture : IPL / X
On a hot sultry afternoon at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders Beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru in a high- scoring thriller by just 1 run at a Tata IPL 2024 encounter.
Earlier, Desperate to put their campaign on track and placed at an embarrassing 10th place in the pints table, RCB Skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and asked KKR to bat first. And KKR opener Phil Salt made the RCB pay for the move as he blasted his way in the power play with shots all- round the wicket. Slat was explosive in in his 48 ( 14 balls, 7 fours , 3 sixes). . Sunil Narine struggled for his 15 runs. Angkrish Raghuvanshi was out brilliantly caught one- handed by Cameron Green for ( 3) .
Venkatesh Iyer ( 16) . Skipper Shreyas Iyer battled hard to finally get some form with 36 ball 50 ( 7 fours, 1 six). Rinku Singh chipped in with a 16 ball handy 24 .
Andre Russell scored a quick 27 ( 20 balls, 7 fours) but unlike Russell innings this . Ramandeep Singh played gem of a cameo and this turned the match for for KKR a fine unbeaten 24 ( 9 balls, 2 fours, 2 sixes) .
RCB bowlers did not bowl well at the end and it proved costly. Lockie Ferguson’s first over went for 28 runs . KKR finishing strongly at 222/ 6 in their 20 overs.
RCB bowling figures : Mohammed Siraj was wayward 1/ 40 ( 4 overs) , Yash Dayal 2/ 56 ( 4 overs) was expensive too . Lockie Ferguson after first over for 28 pulled things back 1/ 47 ( 4 overs) but his line- length was way off the mark . Karn Sharma 0/ 35 ( 4 overs), Cameron Green 2/ 35 ( 4 overs) .
In reply RCB , chasing a big total struggled as they lost Skipper Faf du Plessis for ( 7), Virat Kohli too did not last long out for 18. Will Jacks put the chase on track with a fine 55 ( 32 balls , 4 fours, 5 sixes) he fell when he was expected to stay a bit longer. Rajat Patidar looked impressive as he smashed a quick 52 ( 23 balls , 3 fours, 5 sixes) . But once again could not carry on for big innings .
Regular wickets were hurting RCB . Big Aussie Cameron Green, who a fine day with the ball and field once again flopped with the bat out for ( 6). With Glenn Maxwell out Green was expected to fire for RCB but he has hardly fired this season given his reputation as a power batsman. Suyash Prabhudessai 24 ( 18 balls 3 fours) , Mahipal Lomror ( 4) . Dinesh Karthik 25 ( 18 balls , 3 fours, 1 six) fell in quick succession. The target was withing reach but RCB kept losing wickets.
Karn Sharma gave some hope and KKR nervous times with 7 ball 20 ( 3 sixes) but he too was out when he needed to stay on and take the team home . Jos Buttler had done for RR chasing 223 against KKR, RCB missed one batsman to carry on. Unfortunately they did not have one . Lockie Ferguson was run- out 1 . Mohammed Siraj was not out 0. KKR winning barest of margins by 1 run. RCB finishing at agonisingly 221/ 10 in their 20 overs.
KKR bowling : Harshit Rana 2/ 33 ( 4 overs), Mitchell Starc 1/ 55 ( 3 0vers) has been under fire for his high price but poor show with the ball. Varun Chakaravarthy 1/ 36 ( 4 overs), Sunil Narine 0/ 33 ( 4 overs), Suyash Sharma 2/ 34 ( 4 overs), Andre Russell 3/ 25 ( 3 overs)
Match: IPL 2024, 36th Match
Venue: Kolkata | Date: April 21, 2024
RCB Impact Player: Suyash Prabhudessai replaces Yash Dayal
KKR Impact Player: Suyash Sharma replaces Rinku Singh
