IPL 10, Match 46, RCB v KKR Review: Narine, Lynn power KKR to crushing win over Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore have had a horrid run in the IPL this year. The Kolkata Knight Riders only added to their misery when the two sides locked horns in the last home fixture for RCB at Bengaluru. The match was all about the supreme power hitting of the KKR batsmen in the powerplay. The KKR openers posted 105 runs of just 31 deliveries to set the tone for a mediocre run chase.

Earlier in the game, Royal Challengers Bangalore had scored 158 in their stipulated 20 overs after Mandeep Singh and Travis Head hit crucial fifties. The knock from Head, in particular, was the rescue knock as he added an unbeaten 75 in the match. This happened after Umesh Yadav dented the RCB batting by dismissing the big guns Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle in the first two overs of the game.

Coming into the game, it was the KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir who won the toss and opted to field first. He drafted in 3 changes – Chris Lynn, Ankit Rajpoot, and Piyush Chawla walking in the squad. The ones to miss out were Nathan Coulter-Nile, Kuldeep Yadav, and Suryakumar Yadav. RCB, on the other hand, had only one change in the game. They had Travis Head coming in at the expense of Shane Watson.

In walked the opening duo of Chris Gayle and Mandeep Singh to open the innings. They had the worst possible start that summed up their season. Umesh Yadav dismissed Gayle on the very first ball of the match. Virat Kohli, who came in at number 3, had a short stay as well. Umesh trapped him lbw on 5 in his next over. AB de Villiers was the new man in and all he could do was to hit two fours in his stay of 8 balls that yielded 10 runs. Sunil Narine cleaned up ABD on 10 to keep RCB at 34/4 in 4.4 overs.

Australian batter Travis Head walked in to join Mandeep at the crease who kept going as others wicket fell from the other end. Both batsmen did a very good job of rebuilding the innings. They hit the odd boundary and maintained the run flow going for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. They played the waiting game before trying to up the ante.

Mandeep soon reached his fifty and looked good for more. But, he failed to add to his score past his fifty and was dismissed by Sunil Narine on 52 that came off 43 balls with 4 fours and a six. The partnership of 71 runs ended with the departure of Mandeep. Nothing much was left in the innings to talk about as Travis Head watched wickets tumble at the other end.

Had there not been a certain Travis Head batting steadily, RCB were staring at yet another potential low score. Head went past his fifty and then hit a few lusty blows towards the end to see RCB tickle past the 150-run mark. Head remained unbeaten on 75 off 47 balls with 3 fours and 5 sixes. His efforts saw RCB finish with 158/6 in their stipulated 20 overs. Umesh Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with 3/36 to his name.

Considering the tricky Bengaluru track and the intermittent rain, the target could well have been enough on the day. But some serious hitting from the Kolkata Knight Riders openers took the game away from them. KKR sprung a surprise as Sunil Narine opened with Chris Lynn at the top order. Both batsmen plundered runs at will as Narine scored the fastest fifty in the history of the IPL.

Narine’s fifty came off just 15 balls and a six from Lynn on the last ball of the powerplay saw KKR finish with 105 runs by the end of the powerplay! The mad maniac run finally ended with Aniket Choudhary taking the wicket of Narine on the first ball of the 7th over. Narine made the long walk back with 54 off 17 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes. Choudhary went in to bowl a maiden over as Colin de Grandhomme came in at number 3.

Lynn brought up his fifty in the next over and reached the landmark in 21 deliveries. He perished on the very next delivery as Pawan Negi got through his defenses. His fifty came off 22 balls with five fours and 4 sixes. Gautam Gambhir finally came in to bat at number 4. It was some anti-climax on cards as a couple of wickets fell after De Grandhomme hit a few big shots.

He perished after hitting 31 off 28 balls and was stumped by Kedar Jadhav off the bowling of Pawan Negi. Chahal then dismissed Gambhir on 14 off 16 balls. Manish Pandey and Yusuf Pathan then completed the formalities as KKR went past the target with 6 wickets in hand. Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered yet another defeat this season.

Brief Scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore 158/6 in 20 overs (Head 75*, Mandeep 52, Umesh 3/36, Narine 2/29)

Kolkata Knight Riders 159/4 in 15.1 overs (Narine 54, Lynn 50, Negi 2/21, Choudhary 1/19)

Check the full scorecard here.