On Sunday night, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) played their opening game in IPL 2018 at Eden Gardens (Kolkata) where the hosts KKR secured a 4 wicket victory with 7 balls to spare.
KKR decided to bowl first after winning the toss. While RCB scored 176/7 at the end of first 20 overs, KKR reached that target in 18.5 overs after losing 6 wickets.
Now, we will look at the hits and flops players of this match.
Hits
Sunil Narine (KKR) – KKR cricketer Sunil Narine is on this list but not for his mystery bowling. He shattered the opponent with his destructive left-handed batting skills as an opening batsman. He utilized the powerplay superbly as he completed his half-century in just 17 balls. He was dismissed on the 6th over of KKR’s innings after scoring 50 runs off 19 balls. His thrashing knock built up the match for KKR which they secured later comfortably.
Earlier, the right-arm off-spinner had the bowling figure of 4-0-30-1. Due to his outstanding match-winning batting performance, he won the Player of the Match award.
Nitish Rana (KKR) – While Nitish Rana was familiar as a dependable middle-order batsman, this time he took the limelight in the bowling too. When KKR much needed a wicket to make a comeback in the match, Rana dismissed two world-class and set batsmen AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli in two back-to-back balls.
Bowled only one over but that put a huge impact on the match. Coming to bowl in the 15th over of Bangalore’s innings, the right-arm off-break bowler dismissed de Villiers and Kohli in back-to-back balls but failed to claim a dream hat-trick. His bowling figure in this match was 1-0-11-2.
He also provided the responsible batting for his team as he scored 34 runs off 25 balls and took the team into the comfort zone before losing his wicket.
AB de Villiers (RCB) – AB de Villiers again showed his classic batting skills. With the help of 5 sixes and 1 four, the right-handed South African batsman scored 44 runs off 23 balls. Once it was looking like he would take the game away from KKR single-handedly, but Nitish Rana dismissed him at the crucial time and saved the game. His longer participating could add more 15-20 runs on the board which could be benefited his team.
Flops
Washington Sundar (RCB) – The right-arm off-break bowler conceded most runs in this match as his bowling figure was 4-0-48-1. His first two overs were in the powerplay where he conceded total 29 runs. Later, he failed to come out from that and left the ground as a forgettable day.
Vinay Kumar (KKR) – Former RCB pacer now re-joins KKR but failed to make an impression as an experienced bowler. Bowled the first and last overs of RCB’s innings where he conceded 14 & 16 runs respectively and took two wickets in the final two balls of that innings. His bowling figure was 2-0-30-2.
Virat Kohli (RCB) – The right-handed world-class batsman was far away from Kohli-like batting. He faced total 33 balls where he scored 31 runs with only 1 four and 1 six. Despite providing two good partnerships, but there were major contributions by the other batsmen. After having a very slow start (11 runs off 20 balls), it was looking like Kohli was slowly coming on his touch in the last period but was bowled by Nitish Rana in the crucial time.
