The Kolkata Knight Riders are fortunate
Royal Challengers Bengaluru had some hope after Karn Sharma’s last-over attack on Mitchell Starc, but Kolkata Knight Riders held their composure to win their IPL match here by a thrilling one run.
The Knight Riders had set a challenging 223 runs as their objective, and the Royal Challengers needed 21 runs from left-arm pacer Starc’s last over. With Karn and Mohammed Siraj at the bat, the outcome seemed certain, but the former almost completely changed the course of the match.
Leg-spinner Karn, who has no genuine batting experience, hit three sixes off Starc to cut the lead to three runs off of two balls. Nevertheless, Starc made amends when he took a return catch to remove Karn (20 off 7 balls) and Lockie Ferguson was out on the last ball, leaving RCB at 222 all out in 20 overs.
Between opener Phil Salt’s aggressive 14-ball 48 and captain Shreyas Iyer’s cool-headed 36-ball 50, KKR scored 222/6. Nevertheless, the formidable character of their pursuit did not slow down the Royal Challengers. The groundwork was set by Will Jacks (55 off 32 balls) and Rajat Patidar (52 off 23 balls), who combined for 102 runs for the third wicket off of only 48 balls.
However, after suffering two blows from Andre Russell and Sunil Narine in his penultimate over, RCB lost ground to 155/6 from 137/2. Their hopes were maintained by Dinesh Karthik’s outstanding collaboration with impact sub Suyash Prabhudesai.
In the last over, Russell came back to bowl and got Karthik with a slower ball. Karn almost pulled RCB over the finish line, but the Knight Riders won the night at Eden Gardens as they masterfully executed the last seconds of a thrilling game.
With 10 points, KKR moved up to the second position, two points behind leaders Rajasthan Royals. This was RCB’s seventh defeat in eight games and their sixth straight loss, meaning their season is effectively finished. — PTI
After the contentious dismissal, Kohli becomes agitated.
After Virat Kohli was caught off a waist-high full-toss by Harshit Rana off his own bowling, RCB captain Faf du Plessis voiced his disapproval of the decision to remove him from the game. When he was out for a seven-ball eighteen, Kohli was dismissed, bringing into action the Hawk-Eye technology that measures no balls for height. “Rules are rules; that was crazy.” Both Virat and I believed the ball to be higher than our waists. One group believes it is high, whereas the other does not. That’s how the game sometimes works, according to du Plessis. After an intense exchange with the on-field umpire, Kohli exited the field.
