KKR hand RCB thumping defeat to resume IPL 2021

It was a 200^th IPL game to forget for Virat Kohli as Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 wickets. RCB lost their last five games in the UAE at the back end of last season, and their struggled continues in 2021 as they were completely outplayed from ball one by Eoin Morgan’s side. Excellent spells from Varun Chakravarthy (3-13), Andre Russell (3-9) and Lockie Ferguson (2-24) helped KKR skittle RCB for only 92 before openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer comfortably chased down the target in only ten overs.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat, RCB struggled from the outset as Prasidh Krishna removed Virat Kohli in the second over of the game with a nip-backer that struck him on the pads. Following the loss of the captain, Devdutt Padikkal and debutant Srikar Bharat were able to stitch together a small partnership, but the opener’s dismissal on the last ball of the powerplay opened the floodgates for KKR.

Virat Kohli’s side collapsed from 42-1 to 66-7 after the powerplay as the batters had no answers for the mystery of Varun Chakravarthy and the skill of Andre Russell on the slightly sluggish wicket in the UAE. Russell struck a double blow in the 9^th over with first the wicket of Bharat (16 off 19) with a well-directed bouncer before the prized dismissal of AB de Villiers for a golden duck with an inch-perfect yorker straight onto the base of leg stump.

At the other end, it was Varun Chakravarthy who weaved his magic for KKR as he deceived Glenn Maxwell with a tossed up delivery that crashed into leg stump before removing the debutant Wanindu Hasaranga for another golden duck with a googly that the Sri Lankan didn’t pick up. It was simply damage limitation for RCB from that point onwards and the side eventually stumbled to 92-all-out after Lockie Ferguson and Andre Russell cleaned up the rest of the tail with little difficulty. 

With only 93 to get, it was the ideal opportunity for KKR to boost their net run rate and openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer provided the perfect start to the team. On debut, Iyer creamed some crisp cover drives off Siraj while Shubman Gill found some form after a disappointing India leg of the IPL as the pair put on 56 runs in the powerplay. 

Gill scored an excellent 48 before eventually falling to Yuzvendra Chahal, but Venkatesh Iyer completed the job for Kolkata with three boundaries off the leg-spinner to finish with an excellent 41 off 27 deliveries.

This victory takes KKR to 5th in the table with 6 points as they look to stay in the playoff race, while Royal Challengers Bangalore are still sitting comfortable in 3^rd with five wins out of eight matches.