Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by four wickets in the Eliminator match of IPL 2021. In this match played at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, winning the toss and batting first, RCB scored 138 runs for 7 wickets. In reply, KKR won the match by scoring 139 for 6 wickets in 19.4 overs. Now in the second qualifier, Kolkata will face Delhi Capitals (DC) on Wednesday. At the same time, RCB's journey in this IPL ended here.
Naren's all-round performance
Sunil Narine played the most important role in Kolkata's victory. Narine took four wickets while bowling first. During this, he took big wickets of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, and Shrikar Bharat. Then this Caribbean all-rounder also made a significant contribution of 26 runs with the bat, which also included three sixes in Christian's over.
Great start from KKR
Shubman Gill (29) and Venkatesh Iyer (26) added 41 runs in 5.2 overs to get KKR off to a good start. Harshal Patel returned the pavilion to both the openers. Apart from Sunil Narine in the middle order, Nitish Rana also made a useful contribution of 23 runs. Rana was caught by Yuzvendra Chahal at the hands of de Villiers.
Siraj filled the match with the thrill
In the 18th over, Mohammad Siraj took two wickets and brought excitement to the match. He bowled Sunil Narine on the second ball of the over. Then on the fourth ball, Dinesh Karthik (10) was caught out by KS Bharat. Then in the last over, Kolkata needed seven runs, which were completed by Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hasan together.
KKR restricted RCB to a score of 138/7
Kolkata Knight Riders restricted Royal Challengers Bangalore to 138 for 7 in the Eliminator. This was possible with the help of the deadly bowling (4 wickets) of Caribbean spinner Sunil Narine. Narine, performing his old form, took 4 wickets for 21 runs. Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Glenn Maxwell had no answer for their swirling balls.
Amazing spinners of KKR
Spinner Varun Chakraborty conceded only 20 runs in 4 overs and did not hit a single boundary on his balls. At the same time, Shakib Al Hasan gave 24 runs. KKR's spin trio conceded only 65 runs in 12 overs and their balls were hit for 4 fours. Devdutt Padikkal scored 21 runs in 18 balls and skipper Kohli made 39 runs in 33 balls to give a good start to RCB. Both scored 49 runs in the first five overs.
KKR captain Eoin Morgan started the bowling from Shakib. Lockie Ferguson broke this partnership by dismissing Padikkal. RCB's hero of the previous league match Bharat could not walk on the slow pitch and be dismissed for 9 runs in 16 balls. Narine made him the first victim and was caught by Venkatesh Iyer in the catch deep.
Kohli again lost his rhythm
Kohli, who started well in most of the matches, again lost his momentum after the powerplay. He lost his wicket while trying to play a slog sweep off Narine's full-length delivery. De Villiers (11) played his worst shot of this season of IPL and was dismissed on the off-break of Narine. At the same time, Glenn Maxwell (15), who was in form, was made his next victim by Narine.
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