IPL 2018, RCB vs KKR: 4 Unnoticed things from the match

None of the doubleheaders gave an adrenaline rush to the cricket fans after a high standard set by heart-stopping thriller yesterday dished out by Chennai and Mumbai in the tournament opener.

Nevertheless today we saw a victorious opening to the campaign for two Tamilnadu players, Ravichandran Ashwin and Dinesh Karthik kicking off the tournament in style.

Sportskeeda takes a look at the four unnoticed things from the match which had a considerable impact on the end result.

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#1 Karthik’s bowling strategies

Karthik had a mixed day in the field in his captaincy debut for Kolkata Knight Riders. His bowling changes looked inspired when he introduced Nitish Rana out of the blue in the 14th over which immediately paid dividends when AB De Villiers skied one in the air and Virat Kohli followed him very next ball.

It considerably slowed down the scoring rate until final over when Karthik summoned Vinay Kumar to the bowl and he was spanked for two sixes and a boundary.

It dented the bowling efforts of KKR and helped Bangalore reach a competitive score. In the hindsight, Andre Russell would have been a better option.

#2 Expensive Washington Sundar

Sundar had a debut to forget in RCB

colours

Widely regarded as one of the best economical bowlers in the T20 circuit, Washington Sundar had an off day in the field leaking out 29 runs in the powerplay which later turned out to be his most expensive spells in the IPL.

Sunil Narine was particularly harsh with him dispatching the ball to all corners of the ground.

He, however, redeemed himself by removing rampaging Nitish Rana for 34 through leg before. He ended his spell with the match figures of 4-0-48-1.

#3 Stiff Virat Kohli

Kohli did not have a good outing against KKR

Rested for Tri-series against Srilanka and Bangladesh, Kohli didn’t have an enjoyable comeback on the cricket field both with bat and as captain.

Even though he looked fairly comfortable in the crease and ran well between the wickets with AB De Villiers, he could not increase the scoring rate and could muster only 31 runs at a strike rate of 94.

A better effort from him would have helped Bangalore reach a fairly decent total since their batting efforts were not found to be enough to challenge Kolkata.

#4 Bowling figures with a surgical precision

Narine was the Man of The Match against RCB

Crazily enough, three bowlers of Knight riders gave away exactly 30 runs in their spells and combined to pick five wickets.

Sunil Narine, Mitchell Johnson, and Vinay Kumar were the ones who shared those identical figures while the latter being expensive of the lot bowling an only couple of overs.

Narine was the pick of those three bowlers and strangled the scoring rate when Bangalore batsman was on a roll thanks to Mccullum.