Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets to register their first win of the season here at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday (March 30).
Defending a modest 129-run target Kolkata Knight Riders needed some early wickets and Umesh Yadav did exactly that dismissing RCB Opener Anuj Rawat for a duck caught behind to wicket-keeper Sheldon Jackson in the very first over.
Virat Kohli walked into bat and struck Umesh Yadav for two consecutive boundaries. In the next over Tim Southee got the wicket of RCB captain Faf du Plessis caught by Ajinkya Rahane for 4. Umesh who was hit for two boundaries on the trot by Kohli in the previous over made a brilliant come back dismissing the former RCB captain caught behind by keeper Jackson for 12 to leave Bangalore tottering at 17 for 3.
This is what the #IPL is all about!
Close contest but great to get the points tonight!Let’s build on this and move forward! #PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2022 #Mission2022 #RCB #ನಮ್ಮRCB #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/hOQVeZRvMy
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) March 30, 2022
RCB desperately needed a partnership and David Willey and Sherfane Rutherford did exactly that to take the team’s total beyond the 50-run mark in the eighth over.
Mystery spinner Sunil Narine broke the 45-run partnership dismissing Willey for 18 caught by Nitish Rana as RCB lost their fourth wicket at 62.
Shahbaz Ahmed joined Rutherford and the duo batted sensibly to take the team’s total beyond the triple-figure mark in the 16th over. The moment it seemed that Rutherford- Ahmed duo will take the RCB team to victory Varun Chakravarthy struck as keeper Jackson stumped Shahbaz Ahmed for 27 from 20 balls as Bangalore lost their fifth wicket for 101.
Southee was brought back into the attack and the Kiwi pacer gave a double blow to RCB dismissing well set Rutherford for 28 and Wanindu Hasaranga for 4 as Bangalore lost seven wickets for 111 needing 18 more runs to win.
At a stage when the match could have gone either way Harshal Patel walked into bat and hit two boundaries in the 19th over as RCB needed 7 runs to win off the last over.
That’s that from Match 6 of #TATAIPL.
A nail-biter and @RCBTweets win by 3 wickets.
Scorecard – https://t.co/BVieVfFKPu #RCBvKKR #TATAIPL pic.twitter.com/2PzouDTzsN
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 30, 2022
Experienced wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik hit a six and a boundary to wrap up the match in RCB’s favour as they beat KKR by three wickets.
Earlier, Kolkata’s batting order was the masters of their own downfall. In a quest to hit hard against anything coming their way, they fell while attempting to play extravagant strokes instead of adjusting to the match situation.
Bangalore’s seamers found the perfect length on a tacky pitch: just short of a good length with extra bounce coming to the fore. Kolkata lost openers Venkatesh Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane in power-play. While Iyer tried to nudge a short of length delivery from Akash Deep to the leg-side, only for the top-edge to be pouched by the bowler running to his left, Rahane mistimed the pull on a short ball from Mohammed Siraj straight to deep square leg.
Deep’s pacy short ball, with some away nip, claimed Nitish Rana as a miscued heave over leg-side was snapped by Willey running back from backward square leg and making a slide to complete the catch in the final over of power-play. Kolkata’s troubles increased as Shreyas Iyer holed out to long-on off Hasaranga. Sunil Narine produced some fireworks by smacking Deep for a four over mid-off and six over keeper’s head.
But an ugly hook to a straight ball saw Narine miscue to backward point off Hasaranga in the ninth over. On the very next ball, Hasaranga castled Sheldon Jackson with a beautiful googly. Russell, though, had other plans. He began by slog-sweeping Hasaranga over deep mid-wicket.
Patel struck on the fourth ball of his night, forcing Sam Billings to hit his slower short of length ball straight to long-on. Russell then punished Ahmed with sixes over deep mid-wicket and long-off.
But Patel frustrated Russell with four dot balls and on the fifth ball, the pacer had his man as the big-hitting right-hander tried to hit a short ball outside off-stump through off-side, but got an edge behind to Karthik.
Hasaranga scalped his fourth wicket as Southee holed out to long-on. Yadav and Chakravarthy got a couple of boundaries to take Kolkata past 120. Yadav smacked Deep for a six and four before the pacer ended the 27-run stand by uprooting his leg-stump with a yorker.
Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders: 128 all out in 18.5 overs (Andre Russell 25; Wanindu Hasaranga 4/20, Akash Deep 3/45, Harshal Patel 2/11), Royal Challengers Bangalore: 132 for 7 in 19.2 overs (Sherfane Rutherford 28, Shahbaz Ahmed 27; Tim Southee 3/20, Umesh Yadav 2/16).
