Kolkata Knight Riders dropped catches at crucial times, but held a few, too, to restrict Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a fairly modest total by M Chinnaswamy’s standards in this IPL 2024 match. What the home team got — 182 — was below par and the visitors made short work of it. KKR are going strong and RCB are a bit down at the moment.
The name is Virat. Don’t forget
Virat Kohli has to be appreciated for playing a second standout knock. He is doing something special and showing that there is a lot about him which is still to be spoken about. Sparkling? Not quite. Excellent? Yes. Effective? No doubt about it. But you know what was missing? Support from the other end. That makes the difference between success and failure on a stage like the IPL or any competition and that was the story of the night. Kohli was above par. His team was not.
Harshit Rana, the new star
The more one sees Harshit Rana, the more impressed one gets. He is not express, doesn’t possess exceptionally visible qualities as a bowler. Nor does he intimidate physically. But then, he gets it right and lands it right. He looks the batter in the eye, doesn’t shy away from a fisticuff and cares little about reputations. When a Mitchell Starc gets taken to the cleaners, this Delhi boy steps up. He shows a massive heart, which is a big thing in sports. Congrats KKR for having him.
Don’t write off Narine
Sunil Narine as an opener? It’s a passé isn’t it? He spent those overs in the middle early on with some success and failure. Everyone knows what he can do with the bat and that is not negligible. But, he will throw that bat at everything and mostly not connect. Hold it! There comes the days when the stars align with him. It was one of those days. Narine connected. With telling effect. It was possibly the most valuable innings of the match which took KKR to a second win in as many matches.
Iyers, Shreyas and Venkatesh
The two Iyers? Captain one and foot soldier another, they joined hands when it mattered. There are many instances in the IPL of teams throwing away good starts and making a mess of it in the end. Nothing of that sort on this day when Venkatesh Iyer and Shreyas Iyer came together. The task was far from completed and they made sure that it was done in the end. Not scintillating really, they were steady, brave and a bit lucky. All of that mattered as the two added a precious 75 in next to no time to take their team home.