IPL 2019: How KKR's Russell turned the tables on RCB
Andre Russell scored seven sixes and a four in his innings of 13-ball 48 as Kolkata Knight Riders scored 54 runs off the last 18 balls. He has scored 207 runs in 77 balls with 22 sixes and 12 fours in the league so far.
Published : Apr 06, 2019 00:04 IST
A win looked impossible when Dinesh Karthik fell with Kolkata Knight Riders at 153/5 in 17 overs and needing 54 off the last three overs. But it takes an Andre Russell to turn the game around.
A second beamer of the innings from Mohammed Siraj, which the all-rounder hit for six, forced Virat Kohli to replace him with Australia's Marcus Stoinis. Then Russell smoked three sixes off the 18th over from Stoinis and took the chase in control.
Russell then took Tim Southee to the cleaners — hitting him for four sixes and a four in the penultimate over.
Kolkata went over the line with five balls to spare and Russell remaining unbeaten on 48 off 13 balls, which was studded with seven sixes and one four.
Russell has been dealing only in sixes in the IPL. His record reads:
| vs SRH | 49 off 19 balls | 4 sixes | 4 fours |
| vs KXIP | 48 off 17 balls | 3 fours | 5 sixes |
| vs DC | 62 off 28 balls | 4 fours | 6 sixes |
| vs RCB | 48 off 13 balls | 1 four | 7 sixes |
| 207 off 77 balls | 12 fours | 22 sixes |
The Russell special thus ended Virat Kohli and RCB's dream of registering its first win of IPL 2019 after five matches.
This is how Andre Russell won it for KKR:
| Ball 1 | wide | Navdeep Saini bowls a wide, well over Russell's head. |
| Ball 1 | Russell misses connecting a Saini fuller length delivery as he looks for the cut shot. | |
| Ball 2 | 1 | Russell swats Saini for a single to extra cover. |
| Ball 3 | Misses connecting Md. Siraj. No run. | |
| Ball 4 | Siraj keeps it full and wide. Russell misses connecting, again. | |
| Ball 5 | wide | Siraj bowls with well over Russell's head. |
| Ball 5 | no-ball | Siraj bowls a beamer. It is a no-ball. Russell hits a six over deep midwicket. (Siraj is disqualified at this point for bowling two beamers). |
| Ball 5 | 6 | Russell hits Marcus Stoinis for six, down the ground. |
| Ball 6 | 6 | Six over long-off region. |
| Ball 7 | wide | |
| Ball 7 | 1 | Strokes Stonis to sweeper cover. |
| Ball 8 | 6 | Targets deep midwicket boundary with success, off Tim Southee. |
| Ball 9 | 6 | He hits it over third man fence, off Southee. |
| Ball 10 | 6 | Russell smacks Southee for six over long-on. |
| Ball 11 | 6 | Southee bowls a low full toss. Russell directs it to the crowds in the stands at the long-on fence |
| Ball 12 | 4 | He cleverly puts this behind Parthiv Patel for four. |
| Ball 13 | 6 | Southee tries to get another yorker but Russell spots this and hits him over long-off for six. |
Post the drubbing, RCB skipper Kohli said, "There is no guessing there on why we lost. The last four overs that we bowled was just unacceptable. We needed to be more clever, nothing came off and we just cracked under pressure."
Russell, on his part, said, "I was confident when I went out to bat. DK (Dinesh Karthik) was telling me to take a few balls to see how the pitch is behaving. I was watching in the dugout on TV and had a fair idea. When you need 68 off 20-odd balls, it doesn't happen everyday.
"The nature of T20 is such that one over can change the momentum. That's why I never give up. A part of me was saying that the runs needed were too much but I wanted to fight and eventually, we won with five balls spare.
"No ground is big enough for me I guess, I just trust my power. The hand-eye coordination is the key (for low full tosses) as they aren't easy to hit. I try short arm jabs as extending the arms can put you in trouble," he said.