Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) played their opening match of IPL 2018 on Sunday night at Eden Gardens (Kolkata) where RCB suffered a 4 wickets defeat with 7 balls to spare.
KKR sent the away team to bat first after winning the toss. RCB managed to put 176/7 in 20 overs which were chased by KKR in 18.5 overs after losing their 6 wickets.
Now, we will look at some important reasons for RCB’s defeat in this game.
Ab de Villiers and Virat Kohli’s back-to-back dismissal
It was the 15th over when set RCB batsmen AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli lost their wickets in back-to-back deliveries those were bowled by the part-time bowler Nitish Rana. It was the big turning point of the match as when it was looking like RCB will get past 180-runs mark, those two dismissals checked the runs.
Specially, AB de Villiers was looking in dangerous mood as he scored 44 runs off just 23 balls with 5 sixes and only four. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli was also set with 31 runs knock off 33 balls. If one of them stayed in the crease, it would be helpful for RCB to sort out their end of the innings in the more powerful way.
Virat Kohli slow batting and failed to capitalize
The right-handed world-class batsman was far away from his standard. He had a very slow start (11 runs off 20 balls) and later he tried to control that innings but failed. He scored 31 runs off 33 balls with only 1 four and 1 six. Though he provided two important good partnerships, his partners were the major contributor to those partnerships.
After his slow start but getting set, Kohli had to capitalize that innings into the big knock but failed on that mission.
Powerplay bowling
Chasing down the 177 runs, KKR took the match on their way in the powerplay where the home team put 68 runs on the board in the first 6 overs after losing two wickets (68/2).
In the powerplay, RCB skipper Virat Kohli used the spinners from one side which punished them hugely. Spinners conceded total 41 runs in the three overs of that powerplay. KKR opener Sunil Narine scored his destructive half-century in that period who completed that half-century in just 17 balls.
It hurt the away team largely from which they failed to move out till the end.
