Roy, Chakravarthy star as KKR trump RCB

The Kolkata Knight Riders ended their four-match winless streak in the IPL with their much-needed victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday night. Nitish Rana’s side beat RCB for the second time this season as Jason Roy lifted the team to a first-innings score of 200 for 7 with another half-century before the spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma took five wickets between them, leaving the hosts 21 runs short in the chase.

KKR have struggled with their opening combination throughout IPL 2023, but Jason Roy ended those woes against Bangalore, giving the Men in Purple an excellent start. Roy took on the RCB bowlers against the new ball, helping the visitors score 66 runs in the powerplay. The opener flicked his England team-mate David Willey for six and cleared the ropes four times in Shahbaz Ahmed’s sixth over to get the ball rolling.

Roy got to a 22-ball half-century in the eighth over, but RCB recovered after the early onslaught. Harshal Patel and Wanindu Hasaranga slipped in a couple of quiet overs before Vijaykumar Vyshak removed both openers, restricting KKR to 88 for 2 at the halfway mark. Only 43 runs came off the next five overs for Kolkata, with Rana and Iyer struggling for timing, but the KKR skipper switched gears at the death to set up a big finish. The left-hander, who was dropped twice by Bangalore, laced Harshal Patel for two sixes to end the 16th over and took 17 against Vyshak from the other end.

Rana departed after scoring 48 from 21, but Rinku Singh and David Wiese gave the team the perfect finish, taking 30 runs from the final two overs to take KKR to 200.

In response, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli carted Vaibhav Arora and Umesh Yadav for a series of boundaries to start the chase. However, Nitish Rana’s surprise move to bring on Suyash Sharma in the third over paid dividends, with Du Plessis failing to clear long-on against the young leg-spinner and holing out to Rinku Singh on the boundary. Suyash also got rid of Shahbaz Ahmed in his next over, while Varun Chakravarthy had Glenn Maxwell caught at mid-off in the sixth, reducing RCB to 58 for 3 to end the powerplay.

Mahipal Lomror and Virat Kohli took on the spinners with a swift counter-attack to put the pressure back on KKR, but Chakravarthy had the final say, removing the left-hander for 34. Venkatesh Iyer, meanwhile, took a stunning catch on the boundary to remove Kohli on 54, ending RCB’s last hope of completing the chase. The game turned after the skipper’s dismissal as Suyash Prabhudessai fell to a run-out before Hasaranga and Karthik departed in the space of four balls to give KKR their third victory of the season, taking them to the seventh spot on the points table.