The second match of the Vivo IPL 2021 phase two took place in Abu Dhabi where we witnessed a one-sided affair. The Royal Challengers Bangalore were at the 3rd position in the league table when they’ve faced the fifth team in the league’s table, Kolkata Knight Riders.
It was a special game for Virat Kohli as he was appearing for his 200th IPL match. RCB won the toss and relying on some of the greatest names in cricket, Kohli decided to bat first.
First of all, let us look at the squads for both teams:
Royal Challengers Bangalore Playing 11: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, K.S Bharat, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Sachin Baby, Wanindu Hasaranga, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj & Yuzvendra Chahal.
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing 11: Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana, Andre Russell, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik, Suni Narine, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna.
1st innings – RCB’s Batting collapse
Kohli and Paddikal both opening for RCB with Kohli on strike could not do much with their batting. Kohli punching through the cover region for the first boundary for RCB was something that boosted everyone’s spirit.
Prasidh Krishna bowled a tight line after getting hit for a boundary and got Kohli on the very next ball.
Followed by sending Padikkal to the stands by Ferguson – the batting continued to collapse for RCB after that.
Another major setback for the RCBs batting was the dismissal of AB de Villiers for a golden duck by Andrew Russell- the man in form
However, they managed to put 92 runs on the board after losing all its wickets in the 19th overs with a run rate of 4.84. It is one of the lowest totals in IPL by RCB after their 70 vs CSK in 2019.
Kolkata’s Explosive Bowling
It was seen how the KKR bowlers started with a plan to execute. KKR used 5 bowlers where each one of them knew where they wanted to bowl. The bowlers were very economic when it came to conceding runs.
It is very admirable for they have bowled 62 dot balls in total. They’ve bowled according to their plan- where each bowler attacked the batsmen.
Now, let us look at the stats of the outstanding spells bowled by the KKR bowlers-
2nd Innings- Explosive start by the newcomer
The inclusion of the young debutant for the side- Venkatesh Iyer, along with Shubman Gill explosively started the chase. Mohammed Siraj opening the bowling for RCB conceded ten runs in the first over.
Iyer boosted the confidence for the side by hitting two boundaries on the very first over. During the next over, Ferguson took the responsibility with the bowl but couldn’t do much as Gill was too in an explosive form.
The partnership between both of them was broken by Yuzvendra Chahal during the 10th over where Gill was sent back to the stands. He scored a stunning 48 runs off 34 balls with a strike rate of over 140- which is pretty impressive.
With back-to-back boundaries hit by the debutant, KKR claimed their first win with 10 overs and 9 wickets remaining in the second phase of IPL 21. This win has certainly improved their net run rate along with acting as a confidence booster for the side.
Man-of-the-match: Varun Chakravarty was crowned as the man of the match due to his exceptional piece of bowling. He bowled four overs conceding only 13 runs while taking 3 crucial wickets.
Conclusion
KKR can be seen focused on a dream to qualify for the Play-offs. They have made a good comeback while also doing well in all the departments of the game.
Kohli and his team will be disappointed after this loss and would certainly take this loss as a wake-up call for the side at the start of the second leg so that they know exactly where they need to work on.