On Friday, Kolkata Knight Riders recorded an easy seven-wicket win against their rivals Royal Challengers Bengaluru at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. A win also proved the first away-team triumph in IPL 2024, ending the nine-match home-team win streak.
Virat Kohli's brilliant 83* off 59 balls helped RCB post 182/6 total while batting first in their third game of the season. But Sunil Narine, playing in his 500th T20 career match, and Venkatesh Iyer dominated clueless RCB's bowling attack to chase the target in just 16.5 overs.
Shreyas Iyer-led KKR won the crucial toss and elected to field first with Nitish Rana missing the playing eleven due to an injury. Faf du Plessis fielded the same playing eleven that recorded a brilliant win against Punjab Kings in their last game.
Kolkata started well with Harshit Rana removing Faf in the second over of the game. But Virat Kohli and Cameron Green added 65 runs for the second wicket to keep RCB on track for a big total. Andre Russell removed Green in the ninth over who scored crucial 33 runs.
Kohli and Glenn Maxwell struggled for big shots in the middle overs as the pitch surprisingly proved tacky at Chinnaswamy. Maxwell departed after scoring 28 runs while Kolhi remained unbeaten on 83 off 59 balls to see RCB post a challenging total of 182/6 in 20 overs. Harshit and Ruseell took two wickets each while Narine picked one for Kolkata.
Chasing a tough target, Sunil Narine and Phil Salt produced an explosive start for Kolkata to take early control of the game. The duo added 85 runs in the powerplay overs, the joint-sixth biggest total in the first six overs in IPL history.
New signing Mayank Dagar gave RCB a breakthrough with Narine's wicket in the seventh over and an impact substitute Vijaykumar Vyshak dismissed Phil Salt in the following over to create some hopes for a comeback. Narine scored 47 off just 22 balls and Salt added quick 30 runs.
But Kolkata avoided any late drama with Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer adding match-defining 75 runs for the third wicket. Venkatesh top-scored with 50 off 30 balls and Shreyas (39* off 24 balls) finished the game with a big six off Dagar in the 17th over.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Playing XI: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Cameron Green, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Anuj Rawat (wk), Dinesh Karthik (substituted by Vijaykumar Vyshak), Alzarri Joseph, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal.
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing XI: Philip Salt (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Shreyas Iyer (c), Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Mitchell Starc, Anukul Roy, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy (substituted by Angkrish Raghuvanshi).
