The Royal Challengers Bangalore took their first win in the Indian Premier League this season against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday at DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. They were able to catch up on KKR’s 128 scores earlier with only four balls left in the overs and three wickets.
Bangalore's first match in the season resulted in defeat against the Punjab Kings on Sunday.
RCB won the toss and chose to go bowl instead so KKR started the match on the bat. KKR was stagnant at 101 total at first, but Umesh Yadav added the score with 18 and Varun Chakravarthy with 10 making the final total to 128. Andre Russell scored the most for KKR with 25 runs off 18 balls.
KKR's other score was gained with Venkatesh Iyer who scored 10 off 14, Ajinkya Rahane with 9 off 10, and Nitish Rana with 10 off 5. Shreyas Iyer scored 13 off 10 balls before Wanindu Hasaranga sent him back.
“I thought this game was exciting. Before coming into the bowl, I told the boys this game could define our character,” Shreyas shared. “The way we fought reflects our mentality. Proud to have taken it till the last over.”
Wanindu Hasaranga was the star for RCB in the first innings with 4 for 20 off 4 overs where he dismissed Shreyas Iyer and Sunil Narine. 2021 Purple Cap winner Harshal Patel also picked 2 for 11 off his 4 overs. Patel removed Sam Billings and top-scorer Andre Russell.
The first innings ended in 18.5 overs.
RCB then took the pitch in the second innings and tried to pass KKR’s score of 128. They were struggling at first, facing strong KKR players from Umesh Yadav and Tim Southee.
The duo took out Anuj Rawat in the first overs and immediately at the second over with new captain Faf du Plessis. Plessis’s dismissal is a shocking one since his previous performance was quite extraordinary, scoring 88 runs against the Kings.
Yadav and Southee also got Virat Kohli’s wicket in the third overs.
Their success however was broken by the David Willey and Sherfane Rutherford partnership on the fourth wicket. They boosted RCB’s score with 45 runs. But even Willey was taken out at his third overs by Sunil Narine who was then replaced by Shahbaz Ahmed.
“In an ideal world, we would’ve liked to have won more convincingly but a win is a win,” Du Plessis said. “DK’s (Karthik) experience helped in the end, cool-calm, runs weren’t never really too far away. He’s probably as cool as MS Dhoni can get in the last five overs.”
Rutherford contributed 39 runs for RCB and Shahbaz Ahmed with 27.
The second innings lasted for 19.2 overs.
RCB XI team formation: Faf du Plessis (captain), Anuj Rawat, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik, S Rutherford, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, Wanindu Hasaranga, David Willey, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep.
