Upbeat Kolkata eye victory against confident Bangalore

Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Buoyant from their victories, both Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will try to consolidate their positions at the Indian Premier League (IPL) standings on Monday.

Bangalore put up a clinical performance to beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) for their fourth victory of the season.

With the victory, Bangalore have moved to the fourth spot with eight points from six games behind Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), who also have procured eight points with four wins in their six matches.

Captain Virat Kohli, who was going through a bad patch, seems to have found his mojo as he struck his second fifty of the season with an unbeaten 90 to lead from the front.

The inclusion of Chris Morris has added tooth to the pace attack. He was the pick of the bowlers as he returned with a figure of 3-19 from his four overs to be followed by Washington Sundar, who took two, conceding 16 runs in his three overs.

Meanwhile, Kolkata are also brimming with confidence after two successive victories, which catapulted them to the third spot in the standings.

Kolkata pulled off a heist against Kings XI Punjab after their spinners staged a valiant fightback. Prasidh Krishna (3-29) bowled a magical spell to steer his team to an improbable victory.

This is the second time in a row that Kolkata bowlers have choked the opponents in the death overs without getting them all out. They took three wickets, conceding just 13 runs in the last two overs to emerge winners by two runs.

Krishna bowled a tight penultimate over to bring the equation down to 14 needed off the last before Sunil Narine conceded 12 runs to steer them to two-run win. Kolkata’s strength has been their six-pronged attack in the tournament. In their last match, they thwarted Chennai from scoring 28 runs off 17 balls despite the fact they had five wickets in hand. Mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy bowled an economical 17th over to turn the heat on Chennai before Narine and Andre Russell took them to victory.

The best thing for Kolkata is that captain Dinesh Karthik has returned to form with a match-winning knock against Punjab, which will bring more stability to their middle order.

Kolkata’s batting is still their weak point. They lack depth and the whole batting revolves around Eoin Morgan, Russell, and Shubman Gill, who has scored 220 runs in six innings with two fifties.

Meanwhile, their spin spearhead Narine has been reported for a bowling action after their match against Punjab by the on-field umpire, reported by the Indian media.

If Narine faces any kind of ban it can be a big blow for them. He is one of the most important cogs in their wheel. This is not the first time Narine has been reported for a suspect action.

Earlier also he was reported for the same, when he re-modelled his action and shifted his focus to batting as a result of which Kolkata promoted him to open the innings. But he is yet to click with the bat in this season.

Narine was reported for a suspect action during the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) and was left out of the squad for the final, it was reported by the West Indian media.

However, Trinbago Knight Riders (TKR), a subsidiary of KKR in the Caribbean League, went on to win the title under the leadership of Kieron Pollard, who plays for Mumbai Indians at the IPL.