The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) secured their first victory of the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 by beating the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 3 wickets on Wednesday at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.
A stellar bowling performance by RCB, spearheaded by Wanindu Hasaranga’s four-wicket haul restricted KKR to 128 before useful lower-order contributions from RCB batters took them over the line in a final-over thriller.
RCB, who were chasing 129 runs for victory, remained unchanged from their previous game. Umesh Yadav continued his fine form from the last game and dismissed Anuj Rawat for a duck in the first over of the innings.
The Royal Challengers lost both their openers after skipper du Plessis was caught inside the circle. Virat Kohli, who came in at number 3, hit two glorious fours but was soon dismissed after the former RCB skipper was caught behind off Yadav’s bowling.
At the end of powerplay, RCB were 3 down for 36, with David Willey and Sherfane Rutherford at the crease.
Fifty was up for RCB in the 8th over as the batting duo released some pressure by attacking spinner Varun Chakaravarthy, who was hit for a four and six each.
The Challengers were 59-3 at the end of ten overs as Willey and Rutherford played some risk-free cricket and kept the runs ticking.
Narine brought KKR back into the game by dismissing Willey, who got out to a soft dismissal.
Shahbaz Ahmed, who was promoted up the order, proved his striking ability by hammering two sixes against Russell to push things back in RCB’s favour.
RCB required 36 runs off the final five overs. The 100 was up for RCB after Shahbaz smacked a maximum against Chakaravarthy but the right-handed batter was stumped on the very next delivery.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 132-7 (Sherfane Rutherford 28, Shahbaz Ahmed 27; Tim Southee 3-20) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 128 (Andre Russell 25, Umesh Yadav 18; Wanindu Hasaranga 4-20) by 3 wickets.