Knight Riders clinch the ‘Royal Challenge’

In a match that fit the bill for going down the wire, Kolkata Knight Riders stole a tight one from under the nose of Royal Challengers Bangalore. KKR won by 2 runs on Thursday.

In reply to KKR’s 150, for RCB, Parthiv Patel and Takawale walked into to open their account. Parthiv’s intentions looked clear from the beginning. He freed his arms and had a go at the KKR bowlers. Takawake too joined the party, smashing Umesh Yadav all over the park. Morkel too received the same treatment, smashing the rest of the bowlers too. It was only in the 8th over that kallis gave KKR the much-needed breakthrough, dismissing Takawale for 40.  

With this, Kohli walked in and saw Patel walk out in the 9th over for 21 to Vinay Kumar. The next man in was Yuvraj Singh, both of whom steered RCB to 116/2 in 15 overs. Narine clinched the crucial wicket for KKR, dismissing Kohli for 31. De Villiers walked in and with Kohli, showed a glimmer of hope to RCB fans. However, in the 19th over, Yuvraj fell prey to Yadav, bringing Morkel in. The last over saw de Villers walk back, handing over the match to KKR.

Earlier, RCB won the toss and invited KKR to bat first. Opening the innings for them were Jacques Kallis and Gautam Gambhir, who fell in the very first over to Mitchell Starc, scoring his third consecutive duck in the season so far. Manish Pandey walked into the middle and Albie Morkel drew first blood removing Pandey for 5 in the second over. Joining Kallis in the middle was Chris Lynn, who settled down quickly and began to slam shots everywhere. He welcomed Muralitharan with two lofted sixes and took the run rate to 8.14, scores reading 57/2 in 7 overs.

With Chahal and Muralitharan bowling in tandem, Lynn continued his poetic shots too, with ample support from Kallis at the other end. Varun Aaron’s next spell yielded results as he gave RCB the breakthrough they needed badly: Lynn walked back scoring 45. The next man in was Yusuf Pathan, who walked back after the very second ball he faced, falling to Aaron again. Uthappa and Kallis switched on the damage control mode, rotating the strike, content with the singles. That strategy didn’t click for too long, as Kallis was dismissed by Chahal in the 16th over, caught for 43.

Next up was S A Yadav, who looked quiet initially, but came up with a flurry of sixes. Soon after, Uthappa was removed by Aaron, bringing Vinay Kumar into the middle. Yadav continued with his shots, steering KKr to a decent total of 150 in the stipulated 20 overs.