Bengaluru: Kolkata Knight Riders’ Venkatesh Iyer plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders, at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru, Friday, March 29, 2024. (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak) (PTI03_29_2024_000300B)
| Photo Credit: PTI

Just six overs into the chase, the writing was on the wall. Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had established utter dominance, while Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had nowhere to turn.

While RCB gently tiptoed to 182 for six, KKR sprinted to the finish line in their IPL encounter here on Friday. KKR’s all-out attacking intent was made clear by openers Phil Salt (30, 20b, 2×4, 2×6) and Sunil Narine (47, 22b, 2×4, 5×6), who smashed fearsome blows to rack up 85 runs in the first six overs.

With the required run rate now down to seven an over, Venkatesh Iyer (50, 30b, 3×4, 4×6) and Shreyas Iyer (39 n.o., 24b, 2×4, 2×6) faced no pressure. The middle-order duo settled in, picked on the loose deliveries, and helped KKR reach home with 3.1 overs to spare.

Save for a wicket for local lad V. Vyshak, the 34,000-odd spectators had little to cheer about in the KKR essay.

Earlier, Virat Kohli (83 n.o., 59b, 4×4, 4×6) carried his bat for RCB, even if he was not in full flow. Kohli and his partners struggled when the pace was taken off by the KKR bowlers.

Cameron Green (33, 21b, 4×4, 2×6) and Glenn Maxwell (28, 19b, 3×4, 1×6) kept Kohli company in uninspiring partnerships.

For the third successive outing, Dinesh Karthik came to the rescue in the death overs. Karthik walked in to bat in the 18th over, and provided late momentum with an eight-ball 20.

A shoddy fielding display let RCB off the hook. The worrying trend was set when Ramandeep Singh fluffed a run out chance early in the essay to hand Green a life.

It got worse for Ramandeep, when he put down a skier at deep mid-wicket when Glenn Maxwell was on 11.

KKR was further embarrassed when Narine fluffed a sitter a short while later to give Maxwell another reprieve.

In the 17th over, the virus spread to Varun Chakravarthy, who failed to hold on to a low catch offered by Anuj Rawat.

The KKR opening blitz, however, made up for these failings.

KKR cruises to victory

Knight Riders romped home, reaching the target in 16.5 overs for the loss of only three wickets. Venkatesh top scored with 50 while openers Salt and Narine made 30 and 47 respectively. Shreyas (39 n.o.) and Rinku (5 n.o.) took the team past the finish line

Victory in their respective previous games might have eased the initial nerves but imperfections remain, hence Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders will eye a quick course correction to add steam to their campaign in an IPL 2024 match in Bengaluru on March 29.

The Royal Challengers defeated Punjab Kings by four wickets, while the Knight Riders elbowed out Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs to garner some early points.

But entering the points table has not really eased some of the worries — particularly pertaining to the top and middle-order batting.

The Bengaluru dugout might be a happy space after star batter Virat Kohli made a classy fifty on an unusually gripping Chinnaswamy pitch while chasing 177 against Punjab the other night, but that’s only one part of the story.

Skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameroon Green and Rajat Patidar are yet to hit the overdrive, and for the win against PBKS they had to rely on the last-minute cameos of Dinesh Karthik and ‘Impact Player’ Mahipal Lomror.

The Kolkatans have a much more capable bowling unit, at least on paper, and such a collectively underwhelming effort by frontline batters might push RCB into deep troubles against them.

Once they iron out that rough edges, RCB can look at their bowling unit that still needs to fill a couple of unticked boxes despite good outings by pacers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal against Punjab.

Pacer Alzarri Joseph continues to be profligate and his figures — 0/38, 1/43 — might prompt the RCB think-tank to bring in England left-arm quick Reece Topley, who has impressive white-ball skills, in place of the West Indian for this match.

The Knight Riders offer a strikingly similar plot. Their top and middle-order consisting of captain Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana malfunctioned against SRH at the Eden Gardens.

It required a combined effort from impact sub Ramandeep Singh, Rinku Singh and Andre Russell — the 6, 7, 8 — for them to post a competitive total.

Shreyas, who is central to their batting plans, was dismissed for a two-ball duck, but the return to Chinnaswamy might give him a sense of relief as he had fruitful outings in white-ball cricket in his last two innings.

The elegant right-hander made an unbeaten 128 against the Netherlands in last year’s World Cup before making a 53 against Australia in the fifth T20I in December.

In bowling, Narine redeemed himself with a frugal spell (1/19) after a modest effort with the bat, but pacer Mitchell Starc, their record buy, and Varun Chakravarthy failed to impress, leaking over 50 runs in their four overs.

The KKR think-tank might not be unduly worried as their campaign is still at a nascent stage, but they would like to see the first-choice pacer and spinner finding their range at the earliest.

But it is unlikely that the Knights will make changes to their eleven for this match, unless they want to give a go to promising leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, who showed fine form during KKR’s pre-season matches.

Squads:

Royal Challengers Bengaluru: Faf du Plessis (c), Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, Suyash Prabhudessai, Will Jacks, Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Manoj Bhandage, Mayank Dagar, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Akash Deep, Mohammed Siraj, Reece Topley, Himanshu Sharma, Rajan Kumar, Cameron Green, Alzarri Joseph, Yash Dayal, Tom Curran, Lockie Ferguson, Swapnil Singh, Saurav Chauhan.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Shreyas Iyer (c), KS Bharat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Sherfane Rutherford, Manish Pandey, Andre Russell, Nitish Rana, Venkatesh Iyer, Anukul Roy, Ramandeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Harshit Rana, Suyash Sharma, Mitchell Starc, Dushmantha Chameera, Sakib Hussain, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

Match starts at 7.30 PM.