RCB vs KKR Highlights Playoffs IPL 2021 Eliminator: Kohli's RCB eliminated, KKR vs DC in Qualifier 2

RCB vs KKR Eliminator Live: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) square off with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL 2021 Eliminator in Sharjah. Kolkata had clinched two IPL titles in a space of three years in 2012 and 2014.

Bangalore skipper Kohli, on the other hand, will be eyeing the maiden IPL trophy on captaincy swansong. The winner of this contest faces the loser of Qualifier 1 (Delhi Capitals) while it will be the end of the road for the other team. [RCB vs KKR Eliminator Live Streaming IPL 2021: How to watch Bangalore vs Kolkata Live match]

LIVE UPDATES

22.05 IST: Kolkata beat Bangalore by four wickets in Sharjah. KKR will play DC in the second qualifier

Narine produced an all-round show and Eoin Morgan-Shakib Al Hasan duo held its nerves towards the end as Kolkata defeat Bangalore by four wickets to cruise into the second Qualifier. The night belonged to Narine, who picked four wickets and scored 26 off 15 deliveries. 

22.53 IST: WICKET! Siraj strikes again. A Karthik edges it to Bharat and it's been referred upstairs. Fingers underneath the gloves and Karthik has to depart for 10. Kolkata 127/6 in 18 overs. Just three off Siraj's over.

22.48 IST: OUT! A twist in the tale? Siraj knocks Narine's off stump. But Narine has done his job, hitting 26 off 15 balls. Kolkata need 14 more runs in the last 16 balls.

22.34 IST: OUT! Chahal picks up his second. Rana looks for the big one but picks out de Villiers at the long-on boundary. Kolkata 111/4 after 14.4 overs.

22.23 IST: Narine did it with the ball and he's now smashing sixes for fun! Three maximums off Christian to bring down the required run rate. Kolkata 101/3 in 12 overs. 

22.13 IST: Rana goes reverse twice against Maxwell and finds runs on both occasions. Kolkata are 74/2 at the halfway mark, with Rana and Iyer looking steady in the middle. 

22.00 IST: OUT! Chahal traps Tripathi with a googly. Bangalore take the review and replays show the ball is crashing into the top of leg stump. Rana joins Iyer as Kolkata look to recover from two blows. Kolkata 53/2 after 7 overs. 

21.48 IST: WICKET! Harshal into the attack and starts with slower ones straightaway. Gill miscues one and De Villiers makes no mistake at deep point. 31st wicket for Harshal! Kolkata 41/1 after 5.2 overs. 

21.45 IST: Three consecutive fours for Gill against Garton. After three tight overs, Garton concedes 15 in the fourth to help Kolkata accelarate in the Powerplay. Kolkata 34/0 after 4 overs. 

21.15 IST: Narine on his 4/21: "Today it came out pretty well, I delivered the performance I had, sometimes they do. I think bowling in tandem with quality spinners makes it easier. Today there was more grip than the last game, so the spinners did a good job."

21.10 IST: Royal Challengers Bangalore 138/7 in 20 overs against Kolkata Knight Riders in Sharjah

Sunil Narine spun his web in Sharjah as Kolkata restricted Bangalore to 138/7. He picked up four including the key wickets of Kohli, De Villiers and Maxwell. Kohli (39) top-scored for Bangalore but wickets at regular intervals made them flounder. Ferguson also picked up two wickets including Padikkal's scalp in the Powerplay. Kolkata need 139 runs to make it to the second Qualifier.

20.53 IST: WICKET! Narine is having the time of his life. He removes Maxwell too! A thick top-edge and it balloons straight to Ferguson. Maxwell finishes with 4/21 in his four overs. RCB in deep trouble with just three overs to go. Bangalore 113/5 after 17 overs. 

20.40 IST: Narine strikes again! He breaks through de Villiers defence with a sharp off-break delivery. He's now added three wickets to his name including de Villiers and Kohli. Bangalore 108/4 after 15 overs. 

20.30 IST: WICKET! Kohli was struggling and he fell prey to Narine! Kohli looked to go square but left a huge gap between the bat and his pads. The leg-stump goes for a toss. Narine picks his second to peg back RCB. Bangalore 94/3 after 13 overs. 

20.28 IST: Kohli's strike rate has been down significantly since the Powerplay. The skipper was desperately looking for a boundary and he came up with his trademark bottom-handed flick off Ferguson. He would have felt relieved after that. Maxwell (9*) and Kohli (39*) are at the crease. Bangalore 87/2 after 12 overs. 

20.20 IST: Bangalore were looking for a boundary and Maxwell finally breaks the shackles. A reverse hit from the "Big Show" and he plucks a much-needed boundary. Nine of Shakib's over. Bangalore 79/2 after 11 overs.

20.15 IST: OUT! Narine into the attack and delivers straightaway. Bharat was looking for a boundary as he looked to loft it straight down the ground. Venkatesh Iyer completes the catch to strike Bangalore with a second blow. Bangalore 70/2 after 10 overs. 

20.12 IST: Just five runs off Chakravarthy's over. Kolkata have managed to halt Bangalore's run-flow after the Powerplay. The current projected score is 148. 

19.58 IST: WICKET! Ferguson with the breakthrough. Padikkal looks to swing one but picks up a thick inside edge to disturb the woodwork. First blow for RCB just before the end of Powerplay. Last match's hero KS Bharat joins skipper in the middle. Bangalore 53/1 after 6 overs. 

19.49 IST: Ferguson hurls one down Padikkal's pads and he uses the pace to guide it towards short fine leg. Ferguson concedes 12 runs in the over as Bangalore continue with runs in the Powerplay. Bangalore 36/0 after 4 overs. 

19.40 IST: Only a run from the first five deliveries but a no-ball on the last delivery cost Mavi eight additional runs. Kohli clears covers for a four and whacks it over backward point on the free hit. Bangalore 17/0 after 2 overs. 

19.35 IST: Kohli frees his arms against Shakib and sweeps a floated delivery towards square leg. First boundary of the contest. Bangalore 7/0 after 1 over. 

19.31 IST: Padikkal and Kohli are at the crease. Padikkal is on the strike. Shakib will open Kolkata's bowling attack. 

19.15 IST: Virat Kohli - "Looks like a great wicket, nice and hard. It gets tougher to bat here in Sharjah as the game progresses. Meetings have been pretty short and sharp. We have the ability to win games, nothing changes this being an Eliminator."

Eoin Morgan - "We are feeling confident within the group, we are starting to come good as a team. We are playing with the same team."

19.12 IST: KKR and RCB are meeting in the playoffs for the first time in IPL history. 

19.00 IST: Royal Challengers Bangalore have opted to bat first against Kolkata Knight Riders. Both teams are unchanged. No Andre Russell in Kolkata Playing 11. 

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Dinesh Karthik(w), Shakib Al Hasan, Sunil Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakravarthy

Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat(w), Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Daniel Christian, Shahbaz Ahmed, George Garton, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal

18.58 IST: Yuzvendra Chahal - "I have just looked to bring my confidence from the Sri Lankan series into this one. We are treating this as a quarter-final, it is a do-or-die game. We need to give not just 100% but 200 per cent here."

18.40 IST: PITCH REPORT - This looks a much better track with that great Sharjah sheen. Looks like a polished tooth with not many cracks on it. Think it's going to be a high-scoring match, says Matthew Hayden on the surface. Less than 30 minutes for the flip of coin.   

18.15 IST: Bangalore had beaten Kolkata by 38 runs during the first phase of the tournament in India. But when the two sides met in Abu Dhabi, Kolkata secured a crushing nine-wicket win after bundling out Bangalore for just 92. 

18.00 IST: Bangalore have no major injury concerns ahead of the eliminator game. Kolkata, meanwhile, had a fitness test for Andre Russell ahead of their final league match of the season. Head to Head: RCB 13 - 15 KKR.

RCB vs KKR Eliminator Preview: It will be a test of Virat Kohli's tactical acumen against the ice-cool demeanour of Eoin Morgan when perennial underachievers Royal Challengers Bangalore clash with former champions Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL Eliminator here on Monday.

Kohli, who has decided to step down from captaincy after this edition, has led RCB to the finals in 2016 besides reaching the playoffs twice in 2015 and 2020, and he would like to end things on a high in his last hurray as captain. 

For Morgan, it is about regaining the lost glory for KKR, a team that achieved great success under Gautam Gambhir, who had led them to two IPL titles in a space of three years in 2012 and 2014. On paper, it would be a battle between two evenly-poised teams, but overall, KKR has a slight edge, having won 15 out of 28 matches they played over the years. [FULL PREVIEW]