Kolkata: Andre Russell and Sunil Narine took five wickets collectively as Kolkata Knight Riders clinched a nail-biting victory over Royal Challengers Bengaluru by just one run at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday.
After captain Shreyas Iyer hit a 36-ball fifty, also his first half-century in the IPL since May 2022, while Phil Salt and Ramandeep Singh smashed quick cameos in propelling KKR to a massive 222/6, Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar struck fifties in a 102-run stand for the third wicket to keep RCB in the hunt.
But Russell and Narine struck to leave RCB in trouble as they went from 137/2 to 155/6. Despite a late scare from Karn Sharma, who hammered three sixes in the final over, RCB couldn’t get over the line and were all out for 220 to slump to their seventh defeat of the competition. With this win, KKR jumped to second place in the points table.
With 21 runs needed off the final over, Karn sliced Starc over backward point for six and survived a caught-behind appeal on the very next ball. Karn stayed deep in the crease and smacked Starc for sixes over extra cover and backward point.
But Starc had the last laugh as he held on to a sharp caught-and-bowled dismissal on his follow-through to send back Karn for 20 off seven balls. With three runs needed off the last ball, Lockie Ferguson was run out going for the second run, as Salt disturbed the bails air-borne, to give KKR a narrow win, with RCB enduring a heartbreak.
Chasing 223, Virat Kohli was off the blocks quickly by hitting two sixes and a four. But Kohli lobbed a slower high full-toss from Harshit Rana back to the bowler, and the decision was sent to third umpire Michael Gough.
The review system showed that the ball was dipping on Kohli, who was batting out of his crease, via a procedure where they match the height of a batter up to his waist, with the height of the ball against it, leaving Kohli livid as he made his displeasure known to umpires before walking off for 18.
After Faf du Plessis fell cheaply to Varun Chakaravarthy, as Venkatesh Iyer held on to a low catch at mid-on, Jacks and Patidar joined forces to get RCB back on track. Jacks was strong in attacking on the front foot, especially in hitting three sixes and a four off Mitchell Starc as 22 runs came off the last Power-play over.
On the back of taking down Starc, Jacks hit a six and four off Chakaravarthy to get his first IPL fifty in only 29 balls. Patidar joined the boundary-hitting party in the 10th and 11th overs, employing the pull and slog-sweep well to hit two fours and as many sixes off Suyash Sharma, followed by carting Sunil Narine for two maximums and get his half-century in just 21 balls.
KKR staged a comeback when Russell took out Jacks and Patidar with slower balls in a span of four balls, followed by Narine dismissing Cameron Green and Mahipal Lomror cheaply. Impact Player Suyash Prabhudessai hit three boundaries before holing out to long-off on a slower delivery from Harshit, as KKR eked out some tidy overs.
Karthik, RCB’s big hope of acing the chase, steered past the third man and picked the gap at backward point to get two boundaries. He heaved and sliced Russell for six and four before the pacer bounced back as Karthik tried to swivel over fine leg, but top-edged and was caught by the keeper. Karn tried to conjure up a miracle for RCB, but KKR held their nerve to come out on top by defending 21 runs in the final over.
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