Bengaluru: Confident Kolkata Knight Riders defeated struggling Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in the 30th match of the Indian Premier League at M Chinnaswamy Stadium here today.
Gautam Gambhir won the toss for Kolkata Knight Riders and invited RCB to bat first.
After losing Gayle in the second over of the innings, Lokesh Rahul (52 runs from just 32 balls) and Virat Kohli (52 off 44 deliveries) added 84 runs for the second wicket.
AB de Villiers failed to perform with the bat today and made only four runs.
Shane Watson played a swift inning of 34 runs from just 21 balls that included five fours and a six. He made a small yet crucial partnership of 38 runs for the fifth wicket with Sachin Baby (16 from 8 balls).
Stuart Binny blasted 16 runs from just four balls in the end to take the team’s total to 185 for seven wickets.
For KKR, Morne Morkel and Piyush Chawla bagged two wickets each, whereas Andre Russell and Piyush Chawal picked up one wicket each.
Chasing a challenging target of 186, KKR didn’t get a good start as they Uthappa on the last ball of the first over.
Gautam Gambhir once again played a crucial inning of 37 runs from 29 balls.
Kolkata was at one time struggling at 69/4 when Andre Russell (39 off 24 deliveries) and Yusuf Pathan (60 off just 29 balls) came to team’s rescue. Together they added 96 runs for the fifth wicket guising KKR to victory.
Yusuf Pathan smashed six fours and three sixes in his 60-run innings.
