In a high-scoring encounter dotted with heart-stopping moments, Kolkata Knight Riders rode on skipper Shreyas Iyer’s half-century and Andre Russell’s excellent all-round showing to manage an exciting one-run win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday.
Inserted on a batter-friendly track, KKR erected 222 before thwarting RCB’s spirited chase to post its fifth win. Even in a different uniform, RCB suffered its sixth straight defeat.
With RCB needing 21 in the last over, Karn Sharma unbelievably punished Mitchell Starc in his seven-ball 20 before being dismissed by the Aussie. With three needed off the last ball, wicketkeeper Phil Salt’s spectacular diving run out stopped RCB at the brink.
AS IT HAPPENED: KKR vs RCB Highlights: Kolkata Knight Riders wins by 1 run against Royal Challengers Bengaluru
During RCB’s reply, Virat Kohli’s supporters were disappointed when Harshit Rana surprised him with a high full toss and took a catch. The third umpire found it to be a legal delivery and gave Kohli out to the dismay of the batter.
While Rana did not want to comment on it, RCB bowler Reece Topley said there was a grey area as far as measuring a beamer was concerned.
“It was the umpire’s decision,” Harshit said.
Speaking about the hawk-eye measurement, which concluded that the ball would have met Kohli below waist high had the batter stood at his crease, Topley, a left-arm seamer who did not play the match, said, “He was out of his crease and the ball was over his hip high. The measurement was taken with Virat inside the crease, so it’s a bit of a grey area. It’s a fine margin and would be spoken about in a match where the margin of victory is just one run.”
After Faf du Plessis’ departure, Will Jacks (55) and Rajat Patidar (52) counterattacked. Jacks, who dominated the leg side, mercilessly clobbered KKR bowlers. Jacks, who scored 22 off a Starc over, formed a 102-run partnership with Patidar, who effortlessly clubbed the KKR spinners, in 48 balls.
KKR’s lucky mascot Russell provided crucial breakthroughs by accounting for both in the 12th over.
Narine scalped Cameron Green and Mahipal Lomror in the next over before KKR bowlers, led by the superb Harshit and Russell, excelled in the death.
Earlier, Salt gave a fine exhibition of clean stroke play to set up a solid platform for KKR. Salt (48), who hammered 28 off Lockie Ferguson’s first over, put up a breezy 56-run partnership with Sunil Narine before falling to Mohammad Siraj.
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Yash Dayal dismissed Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi in the sixth over and Cameron Green removed Venkatesh Iyer in the ninth.
Shreyas and Rinku Singh batted sensibly to add 40. Shreyas executed his shots smartly on either side as he drove, pulled, reverse-hit and uppercut in his first fifty of the season.
Russell and Ramandeep Singh plundered 36 runs in the last two to take the host past 200 for the fourth time.
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