Royal Challengers Bangalore claimed third consecutive victory on Sunday as the Virat Kohli-led side defeated Kolkata Knight Riders in Chennai by 38 runs. With the imposing victory at Chepauk, RCB also consolidated their position at the top of the points table.
RCB's win was set up by half-centuries by Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers. Maxwell scored 78 off 49 balls before de Villiers helped RCB take 70 runs off the last five overs, smashing an unbeaten 76 off just 34 balls. The two helped RCB post a hefty 204/4 on the board.
In reply, KKR managed to reach 166/8 as Kyle Jamieson picked up three, and Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal added two wickets each under their belt. Andre Russell's 31 off 20 balls late in the KKR innings gave them hope of pulling off an epic heist but Mohammed Siraj ended up giving away just one run in the penultimate over.
Skipper Kohli showered praise on RCB's bowling unit, especially Siraj, saying that the Hyderabad pacer is a different bowler after the Australia tour. Kohli also lauded bowling performance of Harshal and Jamieson.
"Especially Siraj's over to Russell [was good] - he has had some history against Russell. He's a different bowler after the Australia tour and he shut the game out. Harshal has so much clarity in the end and I think Jamieson also bowled well. That's the reason why we have three out of three," said Kohli.
"To be fair, on a pitch like Chennai, you probably have a bit more space to make an error on the longer boundary. It has to be on the offside and not on side. Siraj did miss on the full-toss, but he has two men on the boundary."
The last five overs of RCB's innings was all about de Villiers. He finished it off in style, pummelling Andre Russell for three fours and a six in the last over.
"The execution was spot-on. We played in Wankhede, Kolkata and Ahmedabad where the margin of error keeps getting smaller. Well, I said at the halfway mark we have 200 because of two genius innings back-to-back. Maxwell was outstanding and AB to follow," Kohli further said.
