IPL 2018: Knight Riders beat RCB by 4 wickets; Narine, Karthik shine

Light to moderate rain and thundershowers are expected in Kolkata on Sunday as the cricketers and fans will have their fingers crossed for the marquee IPL clash

Kolkata Knight Riders beat Royal Challengers  Banglore by 4 wickets chasing 177. Narine's magnificent fifty and Dinesh Karthik's mature innings helped KKR to win comfortably in the end. RCB failed in the bowling department and could not capitalise on the faliing of wickets.  

Kolkata Knight Riders innings report

After 15 overs

Nitish Rana and Captian Dinesh Karthik rebuilt the innings. Scoring a tad above run a ball, both roasted the strike well and did not miss on hitting a loosner. Chahal was hammered when he came back into the attack. Washington Sundar took Rana's wicket. Rana was dismissed for 34 off 25 balls. Karthik was joined by Rinku Singh. By the end of 15 overs, KKr was at 141-4.

After 12 overs

KKR were cruising towards victory as the RCB bowlers looked clueless. After the fall of Uthappa's wicket, Nitish Rana and Captian Dinesh Karthik rebuilt the innings. Sloppy fielding and failure to convert half chances cost RCB. At the end of 12 overs, RCB was 112-3 

End of powerplay: KKR

Sunil Narine did for KKR what Lokesh Rahul had done in the previous match for  KXIP. Narine blasted the RBC bowling and scored 50 of just 17 balls. He smashed the blowers all across the park and brought down the asking rate heavily. He made 50 off 19 and was dismissed by Umesh Yadav. Nitish Rana joined Uthappa. Earlier, opner Chris Lynn was dismissed by Woakes for 5. At the end of powerplay, KKR was  68-2. 

Opener Chirs Lynn was dismissed by Chris Woakes for 5 after Sunil Narine bashed Chahal's first over.

Royal Challengers Bangalore's innings report

End of innings 

RCB batsmen failed to capitalise on the foundation built by McCullum and deVilliers. Constant fall of wickets kept the run rate in check. However, Mandeep Singh played a brilliant cameo in the death overs and smashed Vinay Kumar for 16 runs in the last over. He eventually was dismissed for 37 from 18 balls. In the 20 allotted overs, RCB managed to score 176-7.

After 15 overs

AB deVillers wen on a rampage before being dismissed by Nitish Rana. He made 44 runs off 23 balls. Kohli was dismissed on the very next ball as he struggled to face the spinner. RCB was at 132-4 after 15 overs.

After 10 overs

After giving a decent start to the team, Brendon McCullum was dismissed for 43 by Sunil Narine. A B de Villiers joined Virat Kohli. Despite hitting a few boundaries, Virat seems to be struggling to score runs. On the other hand, de Villiers hit Yadav for two back-to-back sixes. At the end of the 10 overs, RCB was at 82-2.

Story till powerplay

Put into bat by Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Banglore was off to a flying start as T20 specialist Brendon McCullum smashed 14 runs off the very first over by Vinay Kumar. Opener Quinton de Kock was dismissed cheaply by Piyush Chawla. Captain Virat Kohli came into bat kept the scoring rate going, while McCullum was busy punishing the bowlers. They had a partnership of 38 runs in 26 balls. McCullum did the bulk of the scoring as Dinesh Karthik tried variety of slower bowlers like Kuldeep Yadav and Piyush Chawla.

At the end of the powerplay, RCB was at 52-1.

Team head to head: 

Overall: Matches – 20, Kolkata Knight Riders won – 11, Royal Challengers Bangalore won – 9

At the Eden Gardens: Matches – 8, Kolkata Knight Riders won – 5, Royal Challengers Bangalore won – 3

Trivia ahead of KKR vs RCB match: The captain winning the toss opted to chase in each of the 7 IPL matches played at the Eden Gardens last season.

Kohli scored 1,750 runs as an opener from 43 innings at an average of 53.03

In the seven IPL matches played at the Eden Gardens last season, quick bowlers picked up a total of 61 wickets (at strike-rate of a wicket every 16.5 balls), while the spinners collected 24 wickets at a strike-rate of a wicket every 23 deliveries.

Only 3 players have captained the Kolkata Knight Riders in the ten seasons of the IPL so far – namely Sourav Ganguly, Brendon McCullum and Gautam Gambhir. Dinesh Karthik will become the 4th player to lead the franchise.