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image: BCCI |
After winning the toss, RCB chose to bat first in the first doubleheader of the IPL in M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.
At first, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost 2 wickets, Virat Kohli 5(6)and Raj Patidar 1(2) in the 2nd over of Varun Chakravathi's. From then, Glen Maxwell and Devdutt Padikal made a wonderful partnership of 86 runs in 56 balls.
Most of the runs are from Glenn Maxwell, he played his best innings in the last few years in the IPL and scored his 8th IPL fifty since his debut in 2012.
From 2017 to 2020, he didn't score any fifties, this is the second fifty in this year. The change in camp from Kings XI Punjab to Royal Challengers Bangalore has really worked for him.
In Prasidh Krishna's 11th over, Rahul Tripathi caught the ball after Devdutt Pidikal 25 (28) tried to hit for a boundary and got out. The AB de Villiers entered and the scoreboard started to change the score fast after every ball.
In 37 balls, both Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers smashed the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers balls to every corner of the boundary and made a beautifully 50 runs partnership. The boundaries literally rained in the Chepuk Stadium, Chennai just because of them.
Unfortunately for RCB, Glenn Maxwell 78(49), got out in Pat Cummins 17th over while trying to pull the short ball, which was caught by Harbajan Singh in the third man. After this innings, right now he is the batsman in this season of IPL with the most runs.
Even after then, AB de Villiers didn't stop to rain boundaries with Kyle Jamieson. In the last 4 overs, AB de Villers and K Jamieson scored 70 runs against KKR. This is the highest runs scored by a team in death overs in this edition of IPL.
After the end of the innings, RCB scored 204 with a loss of 4 wickets in the 20 overs.
Kolkata Knight Riders
With a huge target to chase, Kolkata Knight Riders opened their innings. At first, KKR batsmen started with good pace but, in the second over Shubman Gill 21(9) caught to in Jameison over. Then Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana tried to revive the situation but no use.
At the end of the powerplay, KKR lost Rahul Tripathi 25 (20) in Washington Sundar's over. Then in the next over Nitish Rana 18 (11) departed in the Yuzuvendra Chahal's over, caught by Devdutt Padikal at the deep midwicket.
In the Y Chahal's 8th over, Dinesh Karthi 2(5) departed after an LBW. From then, the required run rate is increasing and the RCB is gaining control of the match by taking regular wickets and bowling the dot balls.
After that Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hassan tried to revive the KKR, by building the partnership. Their efforts almost succeeded until Harshal Patel took Eoin Morgan's 29 (23) wicket, in the 14th over. They both built a partnership of 40 runs in 31 balls.
Then Andre Russell came and started to hit consecutive boundaries, suddenly the run rate started to come down for a moment.
In Jameison's 18th over, he took two wickets of Shakib Al Hassan and Pat Cummins. With these wickets, RCB had confidence that they are going to win this match but Andre Russell is in the crease.
In Mohammed Siraj's 19th over, the bowler just gave a run in that over. As the penultimate over is crucial for both the chasing and defending team, Siraj did a wonderful job which confirmed the RCB victory.
At last, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 38 runs. What an interesting match to watch, but by the end, the game converted to one side after the powerplay in the second innings.