In front of an evenly-split packed house, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) performed a magical turnaround to defend 131 runs and record an unbelievable 82-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a low-scoring thriller at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday night.
KKR's pace brigade – comprising Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Woakes, Umesh Yadav and Colin de Grandhomme – wreaked havoc with a magnificent display of fast bowling as RCB suffered the ignominy of scoring the lowest ever IPL total of 49 in 9.4 overs.
KKR, which floundered to 131 after being inserted in following a half-an-hour delayed start due to rain, managed its fifth win despite wasting another excellent start provided by its pinch-hitting opener Sunil Narine. His 17-ball 34 helped the host gather 65 for two in Powerplay.
SCORECARD AND BALL-BY-BALL DETAILS
Narine again showed method in his madness, hammering 18 runs, including three crisp fours and a six over long, in the first over bowled by Samuel Badree. Through his neat hitting, he was the dominant contributor in the opening stand of 48 runs with Gautam Gambhir.
After the departure of Gambhir and Narine, who hit Stuart Binny to deep-midwicket, Virat Kolhi employed two leg-spinners, Badree and Yuzvendra Chahal, in tandem to stifle the KKR batsmen.
Badree trapped Uthappa in front with a fuller one and laid the platform for Chahal to pile more misery on KKR. Bowling tidy lines, the two gave away only 29 runs for four wickets in six overs.
The wily Chahal foxed KKR batsmen with his variation. He bowled a wide down the leg side to have Yusuf Pathan stumped in his second over and claimed Manish Pandey, caught at short mid-wicket off a low full toss, and Colin de Grandhomme, captured at slip off a flighted one, in his fourth to bring up his best figures of the season.
Pawan Negi and Tymal Mills bagged two wickets apiece as KKR was all out inside 20 overs.
RCB's reply was disastrous as KKR presented a fascinating account of pacers domination on the same strip where the visiting spinners dictated terms. Coulter-Nile and Umesh worked up pace and generated movement to reduce the visiting team to 24 for four in the fifth over.
Poor shot selection added to RCB's woes as none of its batsmen could reach double digits. Kohli edged Coulter-Nile to slips for a first ball duck, Mandeep Singh played Umesh to point, AB de Villiers skied a fast one and Kedar Jadhav offered a leading edge to midwicket.
An impeccable Chris Woakes tightened the noose by scalping Chris Gayle, who ill-timed it to mid-off, and Stuart Binny in his first over before adding Badree's wicket to his kitty later. De Grandhomme joined the party by taking three as well.
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