Russell breaks RCB fans’ hearts; Kolkata win despite Kohli’s mark

An outrageous 48 runs off just 13 balls by Andre Russell (1x4, 7x6) gave Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) a come-from-behind 5-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in a 2019 Indian Premier League match at The Chinnaswamy in Bengaluru on Friday.

RCB remain rooted to the bottom of the table with 5 straight losses and no points, whereas KKR jumped to second spot with 6 points.

In reply to RCB’s 205/3 in 20 overs, KKR scored 206/5 in 19.1 overs.

Earlier, powered by a 49-ball 84 (4x9, 6x2) by skipper Virat Kohli and a 32-ball 63 by AB De Villiers (4x5, 6x4), RCB had set a mammoth 206-run target for KKR.

KKR’s openers Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine launched their team’s reply in belligerent fashion, with 17 runs coming off the very first over bowled by RCB’s Kiwi quick Tim Southee. However, after the addition of another 11 runs, right-arm medium pacer Navdeep Saini got the Chinnaswamy to break the sound barrier by dismissing Narine in the fifth ball of the second over. Narine’s mistimed shot looped up to Pawan Negi at fine leg, who took an outstanding catch after covering some ground. While Narine departed after hitting a 8-ball 10, KKR’s score was 28 at the fall of their first wicket.

Incoming batsman Robin Uthappa and Lynn added 65 runs in 8 overs until left-arm orthodox bowler Negi gave RCB the second breakthrough in the form of Uthappa’s wicket in the fifth ball of the 10th over. A length ball forced the batsman to play a bad shot which looped to Southee at long-off who took it with ease. Uthappa scored 33 off 25 balls (6x4).

Mohammed Siraj put down a sitter off Marcus Stoinis’s bowling to give Lynn a chance in the eleventh over, which thankfully didn’t prove to be costly as in the very next over, KKR’s attacking opener was sent back to the pavilion by a ripper from Negi that made a mess of the batsman’s stumps. Lynn’s 43 came of 31 balls (4x4, 2x6).

Negi’s first spell of 2 overs went for just six runs and fetched 2 priceless wickets, though his third over proved to be a bit costly, going for 14 runs, all from Nitish Rana’s bat.

Yuzvendra Chahal meanwhile, too proved to be very economical. The pressure paid off and Rana was the fourth KKR man to go, caught by substitute Klaasen at sweeper cover, after he had scored 37 off 23 balls (1x4, 2x6). Chahal finished with figures of 1/24 in his 4 overs.

Dinesh Karthik departed next after scoring 19 off 15 balls, caught by Chahal off Saini’s bowling to give the bowler his second wicket.

Then came Russell and his awesome fireworks that gave KKR a thrilling win.

Earlier, Kohli and De Villiers roared back to form as RCB found their mojo to post a mammoth 205/3 in their allotted 20 overs.

Kohli and De Villiers stitched together a 108-run stand for the second wicket to treat the packed crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium to a spectacle.

Kohli was dropped by Narine on 35 while Lockie Ferguson could not hold on to a tough De Villiers catch when he was batting on 11.

The duo made the most of their second lives and with Stoinis hitting a 13-ball 28, RCB scored 127 runs in the last 10 overs.

This was Kohli’s 35th IPL fifty as the India skipper went past Suresh Raina’s record of 5,086 runs to become the T20 meet’s highest ever run-getter with 5,110 runs.

While Kohli brought up his half-century in 31 balls, De Villiers took 28 deliveries to get there.

Parthiv Patel (25) also looked good to continue his rich vein of form but part-time spinner Rana cut short his stay by trapping him plumb in front in the eighth over.

In the first ball of the same over, Rana could have sent Kohli back in the hut as well but Narine dropped him at short midwicket.

Making the most of the reprieve, the Indian captain went from strength to strength, hitting Kuldeep Yadav four a four in the 10th over as RCB were 78/1 at the halfway stage.

Kohli brought his half century off 31 deliveries in the next over with a delicate late cut off Piyush Chawla for a four.

After Kohli was dismissed by Kuldeep, KKR tried to stem the flow of runs and when De Villiers holed out to Shubman Gill on the extra cover boundary off Narine, it looked possible.

But Stoinis hit 18 off Prasidh Krishna’s last over to guide his team past the 200-run mark.