Following his side’s win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Venkatesh Iyer lauded all-rounder Sunil Narine for taking off pressure from batters with his explosive knock in the powerplay. Veteran West Indies star Narine made his 500th T20 outing memorable for himself and KKR as he shined with an all-round show, helping his side secure a dominant seven-wicket win over RCB at Chinnnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
During the match, Venkatesh smashed a half-century but seemed to have injured his back during the knock while playing a shot.
“Let us see how my back is. I will know after a scan. The ball was coming on well in the evening. Credit goes to Sunil Narine, whose runs took the pressure off us. We just had to finish the formalities. With a platform like that, you have to maximise (on his mindset). Also, my fiance was here today so it was a special day. (Facing Vijaykumar Vyshak) Pace-off in totality was tough but if fast bowlers bowled pace-on, it was easy to take them to the cleaners. It happened with us in our bowling innings too,” said Iyer in the post-match presentation.
RCB batter Kohli was criticised for his slow knock, despite the star batter scoring 83 off 59 balls.
However, Venkatesh revealed that the pitch was two paced, slightly slower in the first innings.
“The wicket was two paced and double bounce in first innings. And it was very difficult to hit bounderies in first innings. And pitch getting better to bat in second innings in yesterday’s match at Chinnaswamy,” he added.
After KKR won the toss, they opted to field. After losing skipper Faf early, Virat Kohli had a 65-run partnership with Cameron Green (33 in 21 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and a 42-run stand with Glenn Maxwell (28 in 19 balls, with three fours and a six). Virat scored 83* in 59 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes and took RCB to 182/6 along with Dinesh Karthik (20* in eight balls, with three sixes) in their 20 overs.
Andre Russell (2/29) and Harshit Rana (2/39) were the pick of the bowlers for KKR.
In the run chase, Phil Salt (30 in 20 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Sunil Narine (47 in 22 balls, with two fours and five sixes) put KKR to a fine start with a quickfire 86-run stand in 39 balls. After Vyshak and Mayank Dagar (1/23 each) dismissed the openers, Venkatesh Iyer (50* in 30 balls, with three fours and four sixes) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (39 in 24 balls, with two fours and two sixes) guided KKR to a seven-wicket win with 19 balls to go.
Sunil won ‘Player of the Match’ on his 500th match for his knock of 47 and one wicket.
RCB is sixth in the points table with a win and two losses. They have just two points. KKR is at second with two wins in two games, and four points.
(With Added Inputs)
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