The Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) locked with each other at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata and the visitors came out swinging this time. After winning the toss, the KKR skipper, Dinesh Karthik asked the visitors to bat first. However, the visitors started on a rough note as their lost Parthiv Patel in the fourth over of the match itself, still, they managed to win the game by 10 runs.
Kohli and Parthiv started their innings cautiously as they scored just 17 runs in the first three over and on the second ball of the fourth over itself, as Sunil Narine got successful in getting the wicket of Narine owing to a juggling catch by Nitish Rana at deep mid-wicket. Surprisingly, after Parthiv’s dismissal, Akshdeep Nath came out to bat despite having players like Moeen Ali, Marcus Stoinis and Klaasen in the batting line-up.
Kohli’s century
However, that gamble failed for RCB as Nath was dismissed by Andre Russell in the 9th over, then Moeen Ali came out to bat and he built a strong partnership with Kohli. Both of them added 90 runs for the third wicket, before Ali getting out in the 16th over by Kuldeep Yadav. However, before getting out on the final ball of the over, Ali smashed Kuldeep for 27 runs with the help of three sixes and a couple of fours.
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After Ali’s dismissal, Kohli kept on slogging the KKR bowlers and brought up his fifth IPL century in just 58 balls with the help of 4 maximums and 9 boundaries. It was an innings to remember for Kohli, who helped RCB reach a mammoth score of 213/4. They amassed as many as 91 runs in the last 5 overs.
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During the chase, KKR lost Chris Lynn in the first over itself owing to some brilliant bowling by Steyn. In the fourth over, even Narine got out followed by Narine getting out in the fourth over. In the very next over, Steyn dismissed the young Shubman Gill with the help of a brilliant catch by Kohli. After his dismissal, Robin Uthappa and Nitish Rana added 46 runs for the fourth wicket as Uthappa was dismissed by Marcus Stoinis in the
Then came Andre Russel to the crease and KKR needed almost 16 runs per over. He joined hands with started Rana and added as many as 118 runs in just 49 balls. They smashed some very big over like the 15th and the 19th overs were smashed for 20 and 19 runs respectively. KKR needed 23 runs in the final over and Ali came out to the ball and barred KKR to go over the line.
Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bangalore – 213/4 in 20 overs (V Kohli: 100, M Ali: 66; A Russell: 1/17) defeated Kolkata Knight Riders – 203/5 in 20 overs (N Rana: 85*, A Russell: 65; D Steyn: 2/40) by 10 runs
