Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their opening IPL 2018 match at Eden Gardens (Kolkata). While RCB put a total 176/7 on the scoreboard, KKR secured the victory by 4 wickets with 7 balls to spare.
KKR decided to field first after winning the toss.
At the beginning of the RCB’s innings, opener Quinton de Kock departed early for just 4 runs while another opener Brendon McCullum was in the hitting mood. McCullum was bowled by Narine on 9th over after scoring 43 runs off 27 balls.
On the other hand, skipper Virat Kohli was far away from his dangerous batting look but he provided two important big partnerships with McCullum and AB de Villiers.
After McCullum’s dismissal, de Villiers carried that innings in the more attacking way. Kohli and de Villiers put 64-runs partnership for the third wicket before Nitish Rana dismissed them in back-to-back deliveries. While Kohli managed to score 31 runs off 33 balls, de Villiers scored 44 off just 23 balls.
In the end, Mandeep Singh played the brilliant cameo as he quickly scored 37 runs off 18 balls. RCB finally managed to score 176/7 at the end of 20 overs.
Among the KKR bowlers, Nitish Rana (2/11) and Vinay Kumar (2/30) took two wickets each while Piyush Chawla (1/31), Sunil Narine (1/30) and Mitchell Johnson (1/30) claimed one wicket each.
Chasing down the target, KKR opener Sunil Narine was in the beast mode while another opener Chris Lynn (5 runs) was dismissed cheaply.
Narine completed his half-century in just 17 balls and soon after that, he was dismissed without adding any more runs. The left-handed Caribbean batsman hit 4 fours and 5 sixes in his innings. Robin Uthappa soon returned to the pavilion while Nitish Rana and Dinesh Karthik provided an important 55-runs partnership for the fourth wicket.
Nitish Rana was out after scoring 34 runs off 25 balls while Dinesh Karthik took the responsibility to finish the game comfortably as he was unbeaten on 35 runs off 29 balls.
KKR chased down that target in 18.5 overs after losing 6 wickets.
Among the RCB bowlers, Chris Woakes (3/36) picked up 3 wickets while Umesh Yadav (2/27) and Washington Sundar (1/48) claimed two and one wickets respectively.
Now, look at some Twitter reactions of the game
RCB same hi rahi hai..#KKRvRCB pic.twitter.com/oMXxxAEvVE
— RVCJ Media (@RVCJ_FB) April 8, 2018
CLOSE ENOUGH…..!#KKRvRCB pic.twitter.com/2qTjtL6wSy
— Krishna (@Atheist_Krishna) April 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/M4Messii/status/983037597063643136
KKR win by 4 wickets. It's still a long tournament and we now head 🏠to the Chinnaswamy 🏟️!
Baz, AB, Mandy,Umesh and Woakes still put in inspiring shows for us to carry back to Bengaluru 👏
Bring on #KXIP. #PlayBold #KKRvRCB #RCB— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) April 8, 2018
14 Balls Half-century In Evening By KL Rahul And Now 17 Ball Half-century By Sunil Narine. And #Pakistanis Are Saying #IPL Is So Boring. 🤪😂🙏#KKRvRCB #KKRvsRCB
— Sir Jadeja fan (@SirJadeja) April 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/hankypanty/status/983022875086065667
1⃣0⃣0⃣ up for #RCB and @ABdeVilliers17 is in rollicking form with Kohli at the other end.
He now has 160 sixes in the VIVO IPL 🙌#PlayBold #KKRvRCB— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) April 8, 2018
"I'm an old man these days, but I still love it when the ball goes up in the air" – AB talking about the Lynn catch #KKRvRCB #IPL #IPL11 #IPL2018 #KKR #RCB
— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) April 8, 2018
Dinesh Karthik led by example. Great captaincy and sensible batting.#KKRvRCB pic.twitter.com/mSYUYXxv0e
— Funnily Serious (@notionalview) April 8, 2018
Daddy and his Princess are all smiles! 💜✨🙌🏻 #KKR #KKRvRCB #IPL2018
• KKR HAI TAIYAAR • pic.twitter.com/ApBkQQkkls
— Shah Rukh Khan Universe Fan Club (@SRKUniverse) April 8, 2018
Cleaned him up!
Baz was looking really good during his knock of 43 (26) but Narine castles him.Our favourite sons are now out in the middle! #PlayBold #KKRvRCB #RCB
— Royal Challengers Bengaluru (@RCBTweets) April 8, 2018
The Moment We Have Been Waiting For Is Here. AB de Villiers And Virat Kohli. Come On #RCB. 😻😍😻 #KKRvRCB #KKRvsRCB pic.twitter.com/Uaq78F6Uog
— Sir Jadeja fan (@SirJadeja) April 8, 2018
https://twitter.com/ikpsgill1/status/982996276798091264
No human on this planet can possibly match AB's 360 degree abilities. We know it, hence we created a machine. #Pavilionx360 #PowerYourGame #KKRvRCB
— HP India (@HPIndia) April 8, 2018
