Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batsmen found the going difficult against both pace and spin and were shot out for 128 in 18.5 overs by Royal Challangers Bangalore (RCB) in their IPL contest at the DY Patil Stadium yesterday. At the time of going to press, RCB were 59-3 in xx overs with David Willey and Sherfane Rutherford batting on 17 and 14 respectively.
KKR, who had stunned title holders Chennai Super Kings in the IPL opener, plunged into deep trouble on a pitch where the ball stopped after pitching, making stroke making a bit of a gamble. West Indian power hitter Andre Russell’s 18-ball 25 was the highest individual score even as Sri Lankan leg spinner Wanindu Hasaranga finished with superb figures of 4-20. Medium pacers Akash Deep picked up 3-45 while Harshal Patel, last season’s leading wicket taker, was brought on as the fifth bowler and ended up with excellent analysis of 2-11.
Balls dug in short did the trick early on for RCB, who were inserted in, with the first three KKR batsmen all succumbing to this type of attack from Akash and Mohammed Siraj to reduce them to 44 for three inside the Powerplay. Akash first got rid of Venkatesh Iyer who tried to flick a short one off his hips and ballooned the ball for the bowler to accept an easy running catch. Rahane was dismissed off a mistimed pull shot by Siraj while Akash did likewise to send back Nitish Rana who was caught brilliantly by David Willey running backwards.
Hasaranga then packed off rival captain Shreyas Iyer, caught at long off, and Sunil Narine, tempting both to hit big, as well as Sheldon Jackson with a straight ball to leave KKR at a precarious 67 for six. Narine and Jackson fell off the last two balls of the second over from the Lankan bowler. Sam Billings too departed after staying at the wicket a bit while Russell threatened for a brief while by carting Hasaranga and left arm slow Shahbaz Ahmed for three sixes. Both were dismissed by Harshal Patel.
KKR were 101-9 before the last wicket pair of Umesh Yadav (18 in 12 balls) and Varun Chakravarthy (10 not out) boosted the total with some lusty hits. RCB went in with an unchanged team that had lost the lung opener against Punjab Kings while KKR made one change by bringing in New Zealand’s veteran swing bowler Tim Southee in place of Shivam Mavi. They had fielded only three out of the maximum allowed four overseas players in that clash.
