Kolkata Knight Riders have defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore in one of the most crucial games of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They arrested their four-match losing streak while also stopped RCB from winning their third match on the trot. It was not the most perfect game for KKR but they did just enough and punished the opposition for committing mistakes in the game. RCB had themselves to blame dropping catches and not latching on to crunch moments and eventually lost the game by 21 runs.
Earlier, KKR got off to a brilliant start courtesy of Jason Roy who slammed yet another fifty. But his partner N Jagadeesan could never get going. Despite all his struggles, Roy's hitting made sure KKR posted 66 runs in the powerplay. But both openers got out in quick succession to Vyshak Vijaykumar. However, RCB fielders dropped Nitish Rana three times and the KKR skipper made them pay smashing 48 runs off just 21 balls. Venkatesh Iyer hung in the middle to score 31 runs while Rinku Singh and David Wiese provided a brilliant finish as KKR made exactly 200 runs in their 20 overs.
Wanindu Hasaranga was the best bowler for RCB conceding only 24 runs in his four overs and picking up two wickets. The rest of the bowlers went for a lot of runs with even Shahbaz Ahmed being taken apart for 25 runs in the only over he bowled.
In the chase, RCB got off to a rollicking start smashing 30 runs off the first two overs. However, the introduction of spin led to Faf du Plessis and Shahbaz Ahmed getting out to Suyash Sharma. Glenn Maxwell also came out and perished to leave his team reeling. At the other end, Virat Kohli started off superbly but had to slow down with wickets falling at the other end. The man also got to his 49th IPL fifty only to get out soon after and that turned the match on its head. Mahipal Lomror smashed 34 runs but his wicket followed by Kohli's in quick succession brought KKR back into the game big time.
Dinesh Karthik tried to take the game deep but left too many to get in the last few overs and he too perished in quest for quick runs. RCB eventually could get only 179 runs in their 20 overs and lost the game by 21 runs.
