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Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) succumbed to seven-wicket defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in their IPL 2024's clash at the Bengaluru's M. Chinnaswamy stadium in March 29. Virat Kohli's masterful 83 off 59 helped RCB post 182/6 on the board. But KKR batters were in haste as they chased down the challenging target with 19 balls to spare, thanks to Sunil Narine's quickfire 47 off 22 which set the tone for KKR. Later Venkatesh Iyer (50 off 30) and Shreyas Iyer (39 off 24) joined the party to seal the match for KKR.
On the other hand, RCB's hoodoo at their own backyard against KKR only got extended. RCB are yet to record any victory over KKR at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru after 2015.
Faf Du Plessis blames two-paced Chinnaswamy pitch
Meanwhile, RCB skipper Faf Du Plessis blamed the two-paced Chinnaswamy pitch for RCB's defeat. Supporting his argument, Du Plessis also highlighted Kohli's struggles during his batting. He said that just because there was lack of pace and the two-paceness, Kohli was struggling to hit the ball.
“Strange one, first innings we thought that the wicket was very two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, back of a length, the guys really struggled. We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little bit easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew that came in. Looking at the way we batted in the first innings, even if you have someone in there, Virat was struggling to hit the ball just because there was lack of pace and the two-paceness,” Du Plessis said in the post-match presentation.
Virat Kohli's slow knock comes under scanner
Virat Kohli started his innings strong against bowlers like Mitchell Starc and Varun Chakravarthy. He was aggressive early on, reaching 62 runs off just 43 balls by the 15th over. With five overs remaining, fans anticipated him pushing towards a score of 90 or even higher.
However, Kohli's scoring pace slowed down significantly in the later stages. He only managed to add 21 runs in his next 16 balls, falling short of his and the fans' expectations. While Dinesh Karthik's late cameo of 20 runs from just 8 balls, including 3 sixes, provided a valuable boost to RCB's total, it also raised some questions. Karthik's ability to find boundaries at the death, especially compared to Kohli's struggles, became a talking point for fans.
It was Sunil Narine, filling the makeshift opener's role for Kolkata, who stole the show on Friday night. On his 500th T20 match, Narine blazed his way to a scintillating 47 runs against Bengaluru. His explosive knock set the perfect tone for Kolkata's chase of 183. Partnering with Phil Salt, Narine tore into the RCB bowling attack, amassing a dominant 85 runs for the opening wicket within the powerplay. This aggressive start not only put Kolkata firmly in control but also etched their names in the history books. Their partnership surpassed the 50-run mark within four overs, marking the second-highest powerplay total for Kolkata in IPL history. The chemistry between Narine and Salt brought back memories of another destructive opening partnership for KKR against RCB, featuring Chris Lynn and Narine himself.
Du Plessis also couldn't contain himself from praising Sunil Narine.
“(Could anything have done differently in the powerplay with the ball?) You can always know after the game, we can say perhaps try one or two things but the way the two of them (Narine and Slat) were striking the ball, some really good batting there, they put pressure on our bowlers. They hit strong cricket shots and pretty much took the game away. With Narine there, you can't really go to spin, you want to use pace upfront. That's also a really good match-up for Salt and the way he plays. They were excellent, really broke the game in the first six overs. We've tried the spinning options with Maxi, the finger-spinners seem be be effective here, but at night there wasn't too much spin, With left-hand, right-hand combination, it's one of those things, you can bowl a spinner,” the 39-year-old further said.
“But as you saw when Venky was playing against the left-arm spinner, you feel like it's an easy hit on a small boundary to hit with the spin. Ideally you want someone who can spin the ball both ways but with the set-up of our team tonight, we didn't have that option. (On Vyshak) Very good, he hasn't had opportunities. We had a look in the first innings and we thought about bringing in Karn Sharma. But we felt someone who could bowl really good slower balls is probably the most difficult bowler to face on this pitch. Dre Russ probably bowled 80 per cent of his balls cutters. We took some learnings from that and he was the best bowler of the evening,” RCB skipper concluded.
Meanwhile, RCB will next face Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 2 while KKR will lock horns with Delhi Capitals on April 3.
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