The Gayle storm is a thing of the past in Bengaluru. However, a storm certainly did blow at the Chinnaswamy stadium as Kolkata Knight Riders’ openers walloped a rather timid bowling performance from the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Whilst 'Lynn-sanity' made a return, it was the man at the other end in the form of Sunil Narine who blew away everyone with the quickest 50 in the IPL this season.
Lynn and Narine also helped KKR set the record for a team to reach the 50-run mark the quickest in the IPL history.
KKR eventually walked out with a comprehensive victory by 6 wickets. Batting first, RCB scored 158/6 riding on half-centuries from Travis Head and Mandeep Singh. However, KKR chased it with ease riding on brilliant hitting from their openers Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine – reaching 105 by the end of the powerplay.
Let us now have a look at how the players fared in the match.
Travis Head: 9/10
Head smashed an unbeaten 75 runs off just 47 to power RCB to a score of 158/6 as the big three of Gayle, Kohli and De Villiers failed to deliver once again. He stitched an important partnership of 71 runs for the fourth wicket with Mandeep Singh and also anchored the innings the whole way.
Mandeep Singh: 8/10
Mandeep has been in a good run of form in the past couple of matches and he continued that today with a superb knock of 52 runs off just 43 balls. He helped construct the RCB innings courtesy of a partnership of 71 runs for the 4th wicket with Travis Head after the dismissal of the big three.
Pawan Negi: 7/10
Negi could not do much with the bat today but picked up two crucial wickets of Chris Lynn and Colin de Grandhomme. Moreover, he gave away only 19 runs in his three overs in between all that carnage by the KKR batsmen.
Aniket Choudhary: 6/10
The left-arm pacer bowled pretty well in amongst the storm that was brought on by the KKR batsmen as he claimed the prized wicket of Narine – giving away just 19 runs in his 2.5 overs. Later he got injured and the remaining delivery of the over had to be bowled by Travis Head.
Yuzvendra Chahal: 4/10
Chahal didn't have the best of outings today as he went for 39 runs in his 4 overs. However, he did claim the wicket of Gautam Gambhir.
AB de Villiers: 3/10
He walked out to bat when RCB was on a score of 20/2 in the third over. He began his innings with two sweetly timed boundaries. However, he lost his wicket soon to Narine as he was cleaned up by the magician with a superb delivery.
Virat Kohli: 2/10
RCB's hopes were leaning on their skipper Kohli as he walked out to bat on the fall of Gayle's wicket. However, he found himself trapped in front of the stumps by Umesh Yadav and departed for just 5 runs made of 9 deliveries.
Kedar Jadhav: 2/10
Jadhav was dismissed caught by Umesh Yadav off Chris Woakes bowling for 8(9) as he tried to accelerate the innings in the later overs. Kedar could not do much and RCB found themselves struggling on a score of 125/5 on his dismissal in the 18th over.
Chris Gayle: 1/10
The universe boss was dismissed right on the first ball of RCB's innings as he gave away a simple catch to Gautam Gambhir of Umesh Yadav 's bowling. As a result, RCB was dealt an early blow as Gayle departed for a golden duck.
Samuel Badree: 1/10
Badree is a world class T20 spinner. However, he was totally humiliated today by Chris Lynn and his West Indian teammate Sunil Narine as they smashed him all around the park in the power play overs. As a result, Badree ended up with dismal bowling figures of 0/40 in his three overs.
Sreenath Aravind: 1/10
Aravind has been pretty decent with the ball for RCB in the past few matches. However, he got smashed for 26 runs in his first over today and was never handed the ball back again.
Kolkata Knight Riders
Sunil Narine: 10/10
A perfect 10 is exactly what the Caribbean magician deserves. Bowling figures of 2/29 from his four overs and then the joint fastest fifty in IPL history with the bat is not something that everyone can achieve in one day. However, he did it all with the utmost ease.
Chris Lynn: 9/10
KKR brought back 'Lynn-sanity' today as Chris Lynn smashed another half century in his first game back from injury. It looked like he carried over from where he left before being sidelined by the shoulder injury. He departed for 50 from 22 balls after making a superb century stand with Sunil Narine.
Umesh Yadav: 8/10
Umesh Yadav was seen at his best today as he claimed bowling figures of 3/36 from his quota of four overs. His scalps included the big wickets of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and Pawan Negi at crucial stages of the match.
Colin de Grandhomme: 7/10
Grandhomme bowled two tidy overs with the ball for just 15 runs and then played a handy knock of 31(28) to steer KKR closer to the doors of victory.
Ankit Rajpoot: 6/10
Rajpoot didn't claim any wicket but he bowled four tidy overs for just 25 runs. He didn't give any room to the batsmen to free their arms and bowled at a good pace as well.
Piyush Chawla: 5/10
Chawla didn't get enough opportunity to prove his mettle today. However, he proved that he is a class act as he conceded only 13 runs in the couple of overs that he bowled.
Chris Woakes: 4/10
Woakes conceded 39 runs with the ball today at an economy rate of nearly 10 whereas RCB scored only at an economy of near 8 runs an over. However, he did pick up the crucial wicket of Kedar Jadhav at the death who could have done much damage.
Gautam Gambhir: 4/10
Gambhir walked out to bat on the fall of the first wicket with the platform already set for a comprehensive victory. However, he could score only 14 runs facing 16 deliveries in the process as Grandhomme was doing the bulk of the scoring at the other end.
Yusuf Pathan: NA
Pathan didn't really have anything to do with the bat today. All he did was he came out to bat and face 5 deliveries without scoring any runs.
Manish Pandey: NA
Pandey just finished the job with a score of 4*(3). Such was the platform set by the KKR top order that he didn't have to dig his team out of any sort of trouble today.
Sheldon Jackson: 6/10
Jackson didn't get the opportunity to bat today but claimed some crucial catches and effected a superb stumping today.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️
