A superlative all-round show proved to be central to Kolkata Knight Riders’ 21-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Kolkata haven’t lost in Bangalore since 2016. Here’s a list of takeaways from the game.
The Jason Roy blitz
Every single time Roy has come out to bat in IPL 2023, it feels as if he has had a point to prove. Drives, pulls, slog-sweeps, flicks – it was a quintessential innings from Roy. He was especially severe on Shahbaz Ahmed, tonking him for four sixes in a single over. When Roy finally fell in the 10th over for a breezy 29-ball 56, he had set the platform for Kolkata’s middle order.
However, at the other end, N Jagadeesan struggled to find his groove and finished with a 29-ball 27. It made you wonder whether Kolkata missed a trick by not sending Venkatesh Iyer to bat at the top, especially in the backdrop of the Chinnaswamy offering such good conditions for batting.
Nitish Rana leads from the front
Nitish Rana essayed some crunchy slogs and whips and finished with a 21-ball 48. In the context of the game, it was a crucial innings as, after a rapid start, Kolkata had lost a couple of wickets in quick succession. At that juncture, Rana took the responsibility of powering Kolkata to a good score. He also made a brave call in the field by introducing Suyash Sharma into the attack in just the third over. Suyash picked up the prized scalp of Faf du Plessis.
Kolkata’s Impact Sub leaves his mark
Suyash certainly turned out to be one of the game-breakers for Kolkata. In his first over itself, he prised out du Plessis with a googly. He also dismissed Shahbaz and ended up with impressive figures of 2 for 30 from his four overs. He gets a fair amount of bite on his googly, although he perhaps needs to work on his stock delivery, the leg-break. A few of the batters also seem to struggle a bit to pick his action.
Senior pros spearhead Kolkata
Varun Chakravarthy once again proved to be the fulcrum of Kolkata’s bowling unit, taking three wickets for the cost of just 27 runs. He dismissed the dangerous Glenn Maxwell and also broke the promising stand between Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror by having Lomror caught in the deep. In the slog overs, he also snuffed out Dinesh Karthik. Meanwhile, Russell hit the bat hard and high up on the splice to keep the batters in check. He was rewarded with the vital scalp of Virat Kohli.
Top-notch fielding
It was a collective effort from Kolkata as they put on a fine show in the field as well. Rinku Singh and Russell held their nerve to pouch a couple of catches in the deep. Iyer then took Kolkata’s fielding effort to another level by snaffling a brilliant catch to send Kohli back to the hut. Iyer, fielding at midwicket, had to run to his left to pouch a low catch, just a few inches from the ground.
Where did Bangalore go wrong?
Faf du Plessis, Kohli and Maxwell have compiled 432, 333 and 258 runs so far. However, on the flip side, Karthik is Bangalore’s fourth-highest run-getter with just 83 runs in eight games. Basically, the main parts of the batting engine room are working, but the ancillary ones are malfunctioning. On a day when du Plessis and Maxwell couldn’t make an impression, they needed one of the supporting cast to step up. It wasn’t to be.