IPL 2018: KKR vs RCB, Player Ratings

The inaugural IPL match started with the RCB-KKR clash, and it's been 10 years and the same teams have met again in Kolkata. Virat Kohli and Mccullum have been the two constants in the fixtures which are a decade apart. McCullum gave a blazing start to the tournament with his 158 runs for KKR in 2008, but he played against the Knight Riders this time around. Kohli has evolved from being the U-19 Indian team to the Indian Cricket Team captain.

RCB returned to the Eden Gardens for the first time after recording the lowest score(49) in IPL during their last visit. This time, they hoped for a better performance after buying all the KKR bowlers who caused the collapse. Even after the 10 years, it was still KKR that has won the opening match between KKR and RCB.

Here are the player ratings of the players from RCB and KKR:

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RCB Player Ratings

Virat Kohli bowled by Nitish Rana (Source: BCCI)

Brendon McCullum

Batting: 43(27)

PR: 8/10

Baz provided the perfect start for RCB scoring 16 runs off the first and held the innings together during the power play and helped RCB score 52 runs in the powerplay overs of which he contributed 33.

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Quinton de Kock

Batting: 4(4)

PR: 4/10

Quinton de Kock gifted away his wicket in the second over trying a fancy reverse sweep, which he completely mistimed and the top edge led to a soft dismissal.

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Virat Kohli

Batting: 31(33)

PR: 6/10

Kohli tried to stabilize the innings and mostly played the role of a supporter with Baz and ABD being the aggressors. Just when he started changing the gears, he was bowled by the part-time off-spinner with a seam-up yorker delivery.

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AB de Villiers

Batting: 44(23)

PR:8.5/10

ABD transformed the innings which was going slow at a blazing pace. But the pace reduced considerably after his dismissal. His wicket along with Kohli's would have cost RCB around 15-20 runs, which could have a difference in such a close contest.

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Sarfaraz Khan

Batting: 6(10)

PR: 3/10

Sarfaraz never looked settled and was finding it hard to hit boundaries. In his attempt to score some boundaries, he lost his wicket off the first ball of the penultimate over.

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Mandeep Singh

Batting: 37(18) PR: 8/10

If not for his innings RCB would have made a score around 160. Thanks to him and his good hitting, RCB reached a respectable total of 176.

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Chris Woakes

Batting: 5(5)

Bowling: 4-0-36-3

PR: 7/10

Chris Woakes is back playing against his old team. He had three scalps but could not a better situation for RCB as he also fell victim to the bludgeoning of Sunil Narine.

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Washington Sundar

Bowling: 4-0-48-1

PR:4/10

After decent outings for India in the Nidahas Trophy, Washington was expected to be the perfect powerplay bowler controlling the flow of runs. But today wasn't his day, as Sunil Narine and Robin Uthappa took a particular liking towards his bowling and hit him for boundaries.

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Kulwant Khejroliya

Bowling: 3.5-0-34-0

PR: 5/10

Kulwant Khejroliya could not create much impact in the game and conceded at almost nine runs per over, making the job easy for the KKR batsmen.

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Umesh Yadav

Bowling: 4-0-27-2

PR: 8/10

Umesh Yadav has turned the game around and raised the hope in the hearts the of RCB fans with the dismissals of Robin Uthappa and Sunil Narine. He was the only bowler in the RCB lineup to concede below 7, everyone else had economy rates above 9. If it wasn't for the 15 runs conceded by him in his last over, his bowling figures would have been much better.

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Yuzvendra Chahal

Bowling: 3-0-29-0

PR: 4/10

Virat Kohli's trump card and the key bowler to take wickets could not take any in this innings. He was taken aback by the attack of Sunil Narine in the first over itself. Later it was DK who scored two consecutive boundaries of his bowling. He was under-bowled today and was going to bowl the 20th over if the need arises.

KKR Player Ratings

Sunil Narine and Nitish Rana led KKR to victory

Sunil Narine

Bowling: 4-0-30-1

Batting: 50(19)

PR: 9/10

Sunil Narine took the wicket of Brendon McCullum in his four overs and had a decent outing with the ball. But his impact was majorly felt when he came out to bat. In spite of losing his partner in destruction, he continued the carnage and reached the half-century mark in 17 balls. His innings made the job easier for the batsmen to come later, in chasing a total target of 177. The score read 65/2 in 5.2 overs at the time of his dismissal.

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Chris Lynn

Batting: 5(8)

PR: 3/10

Lynn never looked settled and was struggling in the middle. The only boundary that he scored was off an inside edge and he was caught out on the next delivery itself.

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Robin Uthappa

Batting: 13(12)

PR:5/10

Uthappa has been one of the senior players for KKR and has been associated with the franchise for a long time. Being the vice-captain of the team, more things would have been expected of him. All he could manage was a six against Washington Sundar. Even though he looked like playing a good innings he couldn't capitalise on the start that he got.

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Nitish Rana

Bowling: 1-0-11-2

Batting: 34(25)

PR: 8.5/10

Nitish Rana has been the hero of the match for KKR. If it wasn't for him then the target may have been in excess of 200. In the chase, Nitish Rana played a very crucial role for KKR scoring runs at a quick pace and leading the attack against the bowlers. His game-changing over with the ball and the crucial runs with the bat have made a lot of difference in the outcome of the match.

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Dinesh Karthik

Batting: 35(29)

PR: 8/10

Dinesh Karthik played a captain's innings and he is turning out to be a great finisher. Calm and composed, concentrating only on the target at hand. He also took the attack to the bowlers when needed and provided stability to the innings. He played the helping role when Nitish Rana was batting, but once he got out. Karthik played according to the situation and helped his team reach the target even when wickets were falling regularly at the other end.

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Rinku Singh

Batting: 6(6)

PR: 4/10

Rinku Singh, a much talked about player for his hard-hitting ability, could not play a longer innings and had only one boundary to his name. He couldn't finish the match and got out trying a pull shot.

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Andre Russell

Bowling: 2-0-10-2

Batting: 15(11)

PR: 7/10

Russel has bowled 2 overs on either side of Nitish Rana's over and conceded only five singles in each of the overs. Maybe he should have bowled the last over, well it's easy to say in retrospection, so it is better not to talk about it.

Andre Russell known for his hard-hitting abilities showed that the one-year did not affect him a lot and he is raring to go as stronger person. But he could finish the innings for KKR.

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Vinay Kumar

Bowling: 2-0-30-2

Batting: 6(3)

PR: 4/10

Vinay Kumar, the experienced campaigner, bowled the first and last over of the innings conceding 14 and 16 runs respectively. He dealt only boundaries, wickets or dot balls.

First over 400604

Last over 6460WW

Vinay Kumar also hit the winning boundary, but his bowling form must improve drastically if he doesn't want to lose his position to the U-19 stars, Shivam Mavi and Kamlesh Nagarkoti.

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Kuldeep Yadav

Bowling: 3-0-33-0

PR: 5/10

Kuldeep Yadav had a pretty decent outing if it wasn't for the genius of ABD who bludgeoned the last two balls bowled by Kuldeep for sixes.

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Piyush Chawla

Bowling: 4-0-31-1

PR: 6/10

He bowled his first three overs in the powerplay and accounted for only 21 runs and also took the wicket of de Kock. He flighted the ball and caused trouble for the batsmen in the powerplay overs.

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Mitchel Johnson -

Bowling: 4-0-30-1

PR: 6/10

Johnson wasn't introduced early on in the innings to exploit the little grass cover present on the pitch. He bowled the middle and death overs. He wasn't as threatening as he would have been a few years ago but did a fine job with the ball.