KKR vs RCB: Victory slipped from Bengaluru's hands, Kolkata defeated on the last ball
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Kolkata Knight Riders have their fifth win this season and the team has reached second place in the points table. This is Royal Challengers Bangalore's sixth consecutive defeat and the team is almost out of the race for the playoffs.
After a defeat, Kolkata Knight Riders have bounced back with a win. Kolkata, which lost the last match by scoring 223 runs at its home ground Eden Gardens, this time won by scoring a similar score on the same ground. Kolkata registered its fifth win of the season by defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore by 1 run on the last ball in a thrilling match. At the same time, Bengaluru has suffered its sixth consecutive defeat this season and thus its hopes of reaching the playoffs are almost over.
In this match, Kolkata batted first but all the batsmen of the team could not score runs completely freely. Despite this, Kolkata scored 222 runs in 20 overs. Captain Shreyas Iyer scored the highest score of 50 runs for the team but the real impact was made by Phil Salt and Ramandeep Singh, who together scored 72 runs in just 23 balls. In response, Bengaluru chased strongly based on the innings of Will Jacques and Rajat Paditar but lost by 1 run on the last ball.
Salt's tremendous 'assault'
This time Sunil Narine was seen struggling in the opening for Kolkata but Phil Salt attacked. Salt laid the foundation of a big score by hitting a six-four on Siraj in the first over and then hitting 28 runs with 6 boundaries on Lockie Ferguson in the fourth over. However, he missed scoring the fastest half-century of this season and was out after scoring 48 runs in just 14 balls. Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi also could not score any big scores and became victims of Yash Dayal in the same over.
RCB bowlers took advantage of the pitch in the middle overs and put some pressure on the pace of runs, but KKR batsmen were completing the rest of the work in one over. During this period, captain Shreyas Iyer scored his first half-century of the season by fighting from one end but Andre Russell (27) was seen continuously struggling for big shots. It was looking difficult for KKR to reach 222 but in the 19th and 20th overs, Ramandeep Singh took the team to this level by scoring unbeaten 24 runs in just 9 balls, which proved important in the end.
Jacques-Patidar attack, Russell-Narine countered
For Bengaluru, Virat Kohli (18) made a bright start by hitting 2 sixes in the first and second overs but he was out in the third over after mistaking Harshit Rana's full toss as a no-ball. There was a lot of uproar over this and Kohli got angry at the umpires but the replays clearly showed that he was out. Faf Duplessis also could not do anything this time. In such a situation, the entire responsibility fell on Rajat Patidar (52) and Will Jacques (55).
Both the batsmen made a tremendous counterattack and took the team beyond 100 runs in just the 9th over. Jacques scored his first half-century of IPL in 29 balls, while Patidar completed his fifty in just 21 balls. RCB seemed to be in a position to win but the 12th and 13th overs proved to be the turning point of the match. Russell took the wickets of Jacques and then Patidar in the 12th over. On the 13th, Narine worsened the condition of RCB by dismissing Cameron Green and Mahipal Lomrod.
Even Karna's 3 sixes did not work
From here, Suyyash Prabhudesai and Dinesh Karthik took the team closer to victory and it seemed that both would give RCB its second win of this season, but in the 18th over, Harshit Rana took the wicket of Suyyash, while in the 19th, Russell sent Karthik to the pavilion. Returned it. RCB needed 21 runs in the last over and Karn Sharma surprised everyone by hitting 3 sixes on Mitchell Starc. Karn was dismissed by Starc on the 5th ball, while Lockie Ferguson was run out on the last ball and Kolkata won by 1 run.