Turbo Charged Sunil Narine marked the occasion of his 500th T20 game by haunting Royal Challengers Bengaluru with the bat as he smashed 47 off 22. Venkatesh Iyer took over the baton from Sunil Narine to hit 50 off 30 as KKR negated Virat Kohli’s 59-ball 83* that took RCB to 182 for 6. What looked like an above-par total at the halfway stage was chased down by KKR with 3.1 overs to spare.
It took 10 matches and a Sunil Narine special for IPL 2024 to produce a victory by the away team. Though it was perhaps predictable that it came at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, where the small ground really does favour the chasing team. That, on Friday, was Kolkata Knight Riders, who overcame a Virat Kohli masterclass to chase down 183 and claim the two points.
Pitch and Toss
“It looks a glorious evening. The square is a little bit used, but the outfield looks superb. Dimensions of the ground aren’t huge. We are the centre of the square – 61 meters (square) either side and 75 meters down the ground. A high six-hitting ground. The first game played here, we saw a number of seam bowlers taking pace off the ball.
Maybe that’s something faster bowlers may go to today. It looks interesting. It’s still a good pitch, it’s hard but there are areas over here – when you look at the good length spots, some of these cracks over here, when you touch, they are a little bit loose. If the spinners keep landing the ball over here, it’s going to come apart a little bit and get you a little more turn. We hope there’ll be no dew interrupting.” reckons Sunil Gavaskar and Ian Bishop.
Kolkata Knight Riders have won the toss and have opted to field with Nitish Rana left out and Angkrish Raghuvanshi making his IPL debut. Anukul Roy comes in for Suyash Sharma as impact sub. Royal Challengers Bengaluru batting first had Vijaykumar Vyshak as their impact sub.
Solid start to RCB courtesy Virat Kohli and Cameron Green partnership
Solid start was provided to RCB as Virat Kohli went after Mitchell Starc in the PowerPlay and built a stand with Cameron Green, who carted Narine for two fours and a six in the sixth over. Despite du Plessis’s early exit, RCB picked 61 runs in the PowerPlay to set themselves up for consolidation in the middle-overs.
Slow is gold for KKR as Virat Kohli manages 2nd Fifty on the trot
RCB had two pace hitters in the middle and KKR unleashed slow bowlers to push them on the backfoot. Left-arm spinner Anukul Roy did his job as a solid match-up, conceding just six runs in his two overs despite bowling one in the PowerPlay. Sunil Narine was treated with disdain even after the PowerPlay, but Andre Russell’s ability to hit the pitch hard and vary his pace restricted RCB’s progress significantly.
He sent Green packing off an innocuous delivery but was bang on for the rest of his spell, finishing with 2 for 29. He beat Kohli too with his change of pace, bowling as many as 11 dots in his four overs. Varun Chakravarthy, who had been held back for the arrival of Glenn Maxwell, started with a three-run over where he too foxed Kohli repeatedly.
RCB recovers to post 182 for 6 courtesy Virat Kohli’s 84 of 59 balls.
Of sorts. Maxwell and Kohli took the mystery spinner down in the next over as they looked to drag RCB out of the post-PowerPlay slump. They took runs off Harshit Rana and Narine as Maxwell was offered two reprieves through dropped catches. However, Starc, Russell and Harshit bowled three very good over at the death – full of slower ones – to concede just 19 runs.
Kohli, who found the going a little tough through the middle, went after Starc in the final over, hitting him for a six. Dinesh Karthik hit Russell for a couple of sixes in the 19th to push RCB ahead after being pinned back in the preceding overs. Starc finished with figures of 0 for 47 as RCB scored 29 off the last two overs to go past the 180-run mark. That however, proved to be insufficient in the end.
It is well known that Kohli hits pace as well as anybody in world cricket. He smashed Mitchell Starc for 33 in 17 balls with three fours and two sixes. The revelation was he was showing the same kind of intent against the slow bowlers. Having hit Narine for just one six in 106 balls across all IPLs, Kohli launched the mystery spinner out of the Chinnaswamy off just the fifth ball on Friday. In the course of this belligerence, he went past Chris Gayle (239) as RCB’s most prolific six-hitter (241).
Sunil Narine stars in 500th game as KKR creates rampage in Powerplay.
RCB’s sheer inability to contain Sunil Narine. Phil Salt got the chase going by smashing his last-season nemesis Mohammed Siraj for two sixes and a four in the 18-run opener over, after which Sunil Narine took over. Alzarri Joseph looked to go short and fast, but the small dimensions of the Chinnaswamy stadium meant even mistimed hits from Sunil Narine carried over the ropes.
Joseph beat him for pace a couple of times, but still conceded two sixes in a 14-run over. Sunil Narine then saw through a slower one from Siraj in the fifth over for a six over deep square leg before laying into Yash Dayal in the final over of the PowerPlay, picking up two fours and two sixes in a 21-run over. With that, KKR blazed away to 85/0 in 6 overs.
This, though, is the KKR gameplan regardless of the venue they’re playing at because they keep using Sunil Narine at the top, giving him a license to play those 30 off 10 cameos. He overachieved, which was fitting on his 500th T20, making 47 off 22. Phil Salt did plenty of damage too. He very nearly didn’t play this IPL. At the end of the powerplay, KKR had 85 for 0. They’d taken down almost 50% of their target in just 30% of the overs with 100% of their wickets still in hand.
Venkatesh Iyer stellar 50 guides KKR to comfortable win
Mayank Dagar arrived and cleaned up Sunil Narine with a full ball, and Salt holed out to the deep square leg fielder off RCB’s impact substitute Vijaykumar Vyshak. That however, wasn’t the way back into the game that RCB thought it was as Venkatesh Iyer walked in to maintain the tempo set by the openers.
He gave Dagar the charge for a six down the ground and hit a four off Vyshak to keep RCB on their toes. Faf du Plessis brought back Joseph, which tipped the scales further in KKR’s favour. Venkatesh smashed a short of length slower one for a six over midwicket, pierced the off-side field with a deft cut and then pulled one short ball for a six over fine leg. The ball then flew off the top-edge for a four in a 20-run over.
By the time Yash Dayal dismissed the left-hander, he’d scored a 30-ball 50 and put KKR well on course for a win. Even as Vyshak used change of pace well, there was very little room for RCB to turn the game around from this stage.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Faf Du Plessis the loosing skipper said :
“Strange one, first innings we thought that the wicket was very two-paced, you could see that when the guys bowled the cutters, back of a length, the guys really struggled,”
“We thought it was a decent score knowing that it gets a little bit easier in the evening, there was a little bit of dew that came in. Looking at the way we batted in the first innings, even if you have someone in there, Virat was struggling to hit the ball just because there was lack of pace and the two-paceness,”
“(Could anything have done differently in the powerplay with the ball?) You can always know after the game, we can say perhaps try one or two things but the way the two of them (Narine and Slat) were striking the ball, some really good batting there, they put pressure on our bowlers,”
“They hit strong cricket shots and pretty much took the game away. With Narine there, you can’t really go to spin, you want to use pace upfront. That’s also a really good match-up for Salt and the way he plays,”
“They were excellent, really broke the game in the first six overs. We’ve tried the spinning options with Maxi, the finger-spinners seem be be effective here, but at night there wasn’t too much spin, With left-hand, right-hand combination, it’s one of those things, you can bowl a spinner. But as you saw when Venky was playing against the left-arm spinner, you feel like it’s an easy hit on a small boundary to hit with the spin,”
“Ideally you want someone who can spin the ball both ways but with the set-up of our team tonight, we didn’t have that option. (On Vyshak) Very good, he hasn’t had opportunities. We had a look in the first innings and we thought about bringing in Karn Sharma,”
“But we felt someone who could bowl really good slower balls is probably the most difficult bowler to face on this pitch. Dre Russ probably bowled 80% of his balls cutters. We took some learnings from that and he was the best bowler of the evening,”
Shreyas Iyer the winning skipper said :
“Coming here, getting those two sessions of practice, we were in a good shape from the previous game. Coming and hitting few balls, it felt comfortable from within. The way Russell came in and realised the wicket wasn’t giving much for bowlers, and went to slower ones, analyzing the conditions on the spot was pleasing to the eye,”
“The communication was brilliant. See when Narine comes in to open, he knows he has one job which is to clear the infield,”
“Today we were contemplating whether to start with him or not but he did a brilliant job. From one end, it was good to bat on. From the other end it was two paced. That was the communication we had in the middle and we passed it onto others. Would be spending a day tomorrow in Bangalore, and then go to Vizag. I’m not expecting much at this point of time – it’s just the start of the tournament. Want to enjoy each other’s success – that’s the plan for now,”
Sunil Narine won the Player of the Match said :
“It’s a nice milestone (500 T20s). Hopefully 500 more to come. It’s just the self belief and the support staff giving the encouragement. Also the hard work. Powerplay over is the hardest over – just have to let that go and keep it tight. Helps when you win. Players have full freedom to do what they want to do,”
Not only do KKR become the first team to win away from home this season, but they also extend their winning run at this venue. They’ve remained unbeaten here since 2015, and today was a particularly emphatic performance from the men in purple. 182 looked like a decent total from the hosts, given that the pitch was on the slower side and it seemed difficult to hit against the older ball. RCB’s scoring rate dropped after the powerplay, and the KKR bowlers used their cutters really well, especially the likes of Russell and Harshit Rana.
However, when it came to the chase, KKR didn’t have to worry too much about the scoring rate against the older ball because Sunil Narine and Phil Salt pretty much killed the game in the powerplay itself. The two of them came out swinging and put RCB’s pacers to the sword, with 85 coming off the first six overs. If the game wasn’t done there, then it was certainly done when Venkatesh Iyer backed up the openers with a quickfire fifty which completely shut the door on the home team, leaving the crowd dead silent. All in all, it was a night to forget for RCB.
RCB have a three-day break before hosting Lucknow Super Giants on April 2. KKR head to Vizag where they go up against ‘hosts’ Delhi Capitals on April 3.