Sharjah: Kolkata Knight Riders edged past Royal Challengers Bangalore by 4 wickets in the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. The chase of 139 runs went right till the final over where KKR needed 7 runs.
Shakib Al Hasan struck a timely boundary on the first ball of the penultimate over helping side enter the Qualifier 2 against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday(October 13).The defeat to Bangalore saw an end of an era in the cash rich league as their skipper Virat Kohli played his last game leading the RCB side.
Sunil Narine starred for the KKR side with his all-round performance. The Caribbean, rolling his arms over, picked up a wicket in each of his four overs before striking a crucial 15 ball 26 to change the complexion of the game later in the evening.
Earlier RCB raced to 53l/1 in the powerplay after Kohli won the toss. However, his team ended up at 138/7 mainly due to some tight bowling in the middle overs. Kohli(39) topped the charts for the batters. However, after his and Devdutt Padilkkal’s(21) departure,
runs started to dry up after that. Srikar Bharat, the last of the last game for Bangalore didn’t even manage to get to double digits.
Meanwhile AB De Villiers who had disappointing campaign had one last chance to do something to cherish but he too failed to put any resilience and when the in-form Glenn Maxwell departed for just 18, it was clear that KKR had done their job well.
The Knight Riders, bowlers bowled very tight collectively giving away just 85 runs picking up six wickets in the 14 overs after the powerplay. Sunil Narine(4/21) did the most damage with Lockie Ferguson(2/29) giving him good support.
In Reply, KKR got to a steady start getting 48 in the powerplay. Both the openers Subhman Gill(29) and Venkatesh Iyer(26) despite, a good beginning were unable to make it big. Kolkata lost wickets in the middle overs as RCB bowlers bowled with accuracy. Yuzvendra Chahal(2/16) was the key man in that phase while Harshal Patel(2/19) also contributed to the good.
The momentum shifted towards KKR, when Sunil Narine came into the crease and smashed a trio of sixes in the 12th over from Daniel Christian. The slight edge however didn’t last long as RCB bowlers streched the game to the wire. With 12 needing off the last two, George Gorton bowled an excellent 19 over but I wasn’t enough, as KKR got to finishing line in the last over.
Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 139/6 in 19.4 overs(Subhman Gill 29, Sunil Narine 26; Mohammed Siraj 2/19; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/16) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 138/7 in 20 overs(Virat Kohli 39, Devdutt Padikkal 21; Sunil Narine 4/21, Lockie Ferguson 2/30) by 4 wickets.
