IPL 2018: Match 3, KKR vs RCB – Most Valuable and Liable player of the game

Kolkata Knight Riders held the upper hand over the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their opening game of the season at the Eden Gardens. All-round performances from the home team’s players restricted RCB’s total to 176/7. Sunil Narine began the run-chase with a quick fire half century as KKR scored 68 runs in the powerplay. Nitish Rana’s 34 and skipper Dinesh Karthik’s unbeaten 35 helped to chase down the 177-run target with seven balls and four wickets to spare.

Along with the half-century, Narine sparkled with the ball as he dismissed the dangerous Brendon McCullum. He conceded only 30 runs in his four overs and bowled nine dot deliveries. According to the CricTracker’s player value algorithm, the Windies all-rounder earned 71.5 lakhs which is the highest for any player in the game. Narine’s team-mate Nitish Rana earned 58.5 lakhs from this game as he got the wickets of AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli before scoring 34 in the chase.

As many as five players were tied at 3 lakhs which is the lowest player value in this game. However, Yuzvendra Chahal turned out to be CT’s liable player of the game by being part of the losing side. Among the three RCB players with a 3-lakh value in the game, Chahal was paid the highest at the auctions. Sarfaraz Khan and Kulwant Khejroliya are the other two RCB players with a match value of 3 lakhs. Kuldeep Yadav and Chris Lynn’s performances (3 lakhs) are the lowest for the home side.

Vinay Kumar, who bowled the first and last over in the RCB’s innings, conceded 30 runs in the first nine balls he bowled. However, he made a comeback by bagging two wickets in last two balls of the final over. He later scored the winning runs as well. His performances in the game were valued at 27.5 lakhs. Vinay’s match value is 4.1 times his average match salary as the Karnataka pacer was bought by KKR for only Rs. 1 crore. AB de Villiers turned out to be the highest valued played for RCB as he scored a 44 off 25 balls that included five maximums.