IPL 2016: RCB stay in playoff hunt with comfortable win over KKR
Royal Challengers Bangalore kept their playoff hopes alive with a 9 wicket win against Kolkata Knight Riders on Monday with another Kohli-ABD show. Earlier, KKR had posted 183 on the board with impressive fifties from Manish Pandey and Gautam Gambhir with a helping hand from Russell at the end.
Brief Scores: KKR 183/5 in 20 overs (Gambhir 51(34), M Pandey 50(35), Aravind 2/41) lost to RCB 186/1 in 18.4 overs (Kohli 75(51), de Villiers 59(31), Narine 1/34)
With overcast conditions in Kolkata, humidity was high, and the Eden Gardens pitch had just enough moisture and dampness to make for a good wicket to bowl on. RCB responded to the conditions and picked an extra spinner in Iqbal Abdullah, relegating Varun Aaron to the bench after Virat Kohli won only his 4th toss of the season. Kolkata Knight Riders on the other hand, had 3 spinners at their disposal in Saturday’s win over Pune, and chose to field an unchanged eleven.
1. Gambhir and Pandey make merry
Kolkata lost Robin Uthappa early after the opener failed to deal with Iqbal Abdulla’s slow turner. The ball was turning, and it looked like an excellent decision by Kohli to field first. But the first ball Manish Pandey faced, he dispatched it to the mid wicket boundary for four. Manish Pandey specifically targeted the mid-wicket area against the spinners and scored 46% of his runs in that zone. Gambhir, on the other hand, scored most of his runs on the off-side against the spinners as the two looked to have come in with a plan. Suddenly, the spinner-friendly track looked not-so-friendly anymore. The two added 76 runs and batted past the halfway mark in the innings, that too at a run-rate of over 9, providing the perfect platform for the batsmen to follow.
2. Poor death bowling and Russell help KKR post big total
After a brilliant start by KKR, Bangalore pulled it back with some timely wickets. In fact, 3 wickets fell in an 11-ball spell, and before it could even sink in, the Knight Riders had half their batsmen sent back to the pavilion. RCB found themselves on top going into the death overs, but as has been the case for most of this IPL, their bowlers leaked runs for fun when it mattered. Conceding 59 runs in the last 5 overs should be criminal, considering the flurry of wickets in the overs preceding the 16th. Chris Jordan, though, bowled a brilliant penultimate over, but when he missed his line in the last ball, Russell planted him into the stands. Russell’s 18-ball-37 propelled KKR to 183.
3. Gayle’s Kolkata romance
Chris Gayle loves to play against Kolkata Knight Riders. Not to forget, Gayle played for KKR till 2010, when they let him go after a poor season. RCB drafted him mid-season, and on his debut for the Bengaluru-based franchise, Gayle hit a century against KKR itself. The love affair has only grown stronger and it continued again tonight. Running woefully short of form, all it needed for Gayle to return to form was the sight of the KKR bowlers. Gayle unleashed his full array of shots, first on Morne Morkel and then on fellow countryman Andre Russell. A 31-ball 49 was exactly what RCB needed at the top to get going.
In the kind of form Virat Kohli is in, the last thing you can do as an opponent is give him an extra life. But that is exactly what his opposite number Gambhir did in the 11th over. Batting on 32 then, Kohli cut a Shakib delivery right into the cupped hands of Gambhir but the skipper couldn’t hold on to the catch, and thus the match as a result. Kohli only grew from strength to strength thereafter. With every adjective in the dictionary thrown at them already, Kohli and de Villiers brought up another 100+ run partnership in what has become a routine affair, and guided the team to a comfortable win.
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