Finance
At the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Benagluru on Friday, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 7 wickets, breaking the trend of home team wins in the Indian Premier League 2024. Sunil Narine hammered a 22-ball 47, Venkatesh Iyer struck his first half-century of the season, and skipper Shreyas Iyer also scored runs.
Venkatesh (50) and Shreyas (39 not out) made sure KKR won with some gas left in the tank after Narine set the tone for the team with a scorching performance on a wicket that had eased out in the second innings with the dew also playing a part.
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.
The RCB bowling squad was left stunned as the Kolkata Knight Riders amassed 85 runs in the Power-play, thanks to the explosive play of Salt and Narine. Beginning with the first over itself, Narine set off a barrage of five sixes and two boundaries. Salt continued his scoring pace, hitting two fours and two sixes to give Narine solid support.
Despite not scoring much in the previous few games, Narine made the most of the opportunity by letting loose and smashing the ball all over the field. They mostly attacked Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, and Mohammed Siraj, three Pacers. Siraj threw up 46 runs in three overs, Joseph gave up 34 runs in two overs, while 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.
KKR were struggling at 92/2, but Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer combined to put on 74 runs for the third wicket, with Iyer accounting for most of the runs. Despite being hindered by back pain, he managed to score 50 off 30 balls with three boundaries and four maximums. Shreyas, who scored 39 off 24 balls, was a fantastic companion for him. During his innings, Venkatesh smashed a 106-meter six, but in the 16th over, he was out trying to hit Yash Dayal out of the ground. Instead, he found Virat Kohli at the cow corner, dragging the shot as Dayal selected short of length outside off-stump and cut the speed.
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.
Source:IANS
