Brief Scores from RCB vs KKR: Royal Challengers Bangalore 204/4 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers 76*, Glenn Maxwell 78; Varun Chakravarthy 2/39, Prasidh Krishna 1/31).
Kolkata Knight Riders 166/8 in 20 overs (Andre Russell 31, Eoin Morgan 29; Kyle Jamieson 3/41, Harshal Patel 2/17)
Winning the toss and opting to bat first, Royal Challengers Bangalore were once again a victim of a poor start to their innings, losing skipper Virat Kohli and their No.3 batter, Rajat Patidar, within the first couple of overs. Devdutt Padikkal too couldn’t wreak much damage, bringing the onus on their in-form batsman, Glenn Maxwell, to do the honors on the track offered in Chennai. Sensing the need to up the scoring and take RCB to a competitive tally, Maxwell and AB de Villiers went berserk on KKR’s bowlers, adding 53 runs for the fourth wicket, which was followed by a quick 56* run stand between De Villiers and Kyle Jamieson that eventually propelled their side to 204/4 in the 20 overs.
In response, KKR could muster only 166 runs at the expense of 8 wickets, with only two major partnerships in their innings – a 40 runs stand between Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hasan, then a 41 runs stand between Andre Russell and once again Shakib being at the other end. The loss of wickets post powerplay hurt their chances and eventually denied them a win over RCB.
Here are the talking points from RCB vs KKR match at M.A Chidambaram Stadium –
RCB’s top-order struggle continues
One of the major issues that Bangalore are facing this season is their top-order’s inability to capitalize on the powerplay and forge match-winning partnerships that can take their side to a concrete position.
Skipper Virat Kohli hasn’t been the raging batsman that he usually is in the tournament. With scores of 33 (versus Mumbai Indians), 33 (versus Sunrisers Hyderabad) and 5 (versus Kolkata Knight Riders), the skipper has looked a mere shadow of himself. Although RCB have been on a winning end in each of the instances, it’s about time Kohli gets back on a scoring spree.
Rajat Patidar, who came out to bat at No 3 against Mumbai in the tournament opener and in the recently concluded outing against Kolkata, registered scores of 8 and 1 respectively.
Even Devdutt Padikkal, who shone with his performances in the 2020 edition of the tournament, hasn’t looked comfortable on the crease, with the last two knocks being 11(13) and 25(28).
Maxwell, De Villiers toy with KKR bowlers
Once again, there has been an overdependence on AB de Villiers, who has been the vital cog for RCB on two occasions in the ongoing edition. However, the Protea cricketer hasn’t been the sole contributor in their middle-order, it’s his Australian colleague, Glenn Maxwell, who too has shouldered the responsibility this season, and so far, has lived to the expectations
Indeed, the decision to rope in Glenn Maxwell has been a blessing for the Bangalore-based franchise, as he’s leading the batting chart for RCB in IPL 2021 with knocks of 39 and 59 against Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively.
Against Kolkata, when the scorecard read 2/9 in 1.6 overs, Maxwell paced the innings with grace, adding 86 runs off 58 deliveries for the third wicket alongside Devdutt.
Maxwell rotated the strike well to keep AB de Villiers on the crease, who contributed 33 runs to their 53-run stand, and a whopping 43 runs off the next 14 deliveries to remain unbeaten on 76*.
Andre Russell top scores for KKR with 31; RCB’s bowlers curtain the show at Chepauk
With a 205-run target on board, one could say that Kolkata Knight Riders started the innings well, with openers Shubman Gill and Nitish Rana adding quick 23 runs to the total, and even post Gill’s dismissal on 21, Rahul Tripathi handled the deliveries well as he added 34-runs for the second-wicket.
However, the situation worsened for the Knight Riders from the 6th over onwards, losing Rahul (25), Rana (18) and Dinesh Karthik (2) in a span of a few overs, bringing the scorecard to 4/74 in 8.3 overs.
Skipper Eoin Morgan (29) seemed to get back in his groove, striking 2 sixes and a four, and while he couldn’t extend his stay on the crease, and neither could Shakib Al Hasan (26) and Andre Russell, who finished as the top-scorer for KKR, with a 20-ball 31 studded with 3 fours and 2 sixes.
Not just RCB’s batting duo of AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell, a huge round of credits goes to RCB’s bowling attack for affect breakthroughs at frequent intervals, denying KKR from settling down at any stage in the feud, and restricting their rivals to 166/8 in 20 overs.
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