Russel, Rana blizzard cant overshadow Kohlis 100 as RCB beat KKR

Virat Kohli celebrates his century Source

Royal Challengers Bangalore won only their second match of IPL 2019 out of the nine matches that they have played so far. Despite putting on a massive 213 runs on the board on the back of Virat Kohli’s fifth IPL century, the south Indian team was really given a scare by Andre Russel and Nitish Rana. They brought Kolkata Knight Riders to within striking distance of 214 runs needing only 24 runs in the last over. Moeen Ali, however, defended the runs well to give Bangalore a win by 10 runs.

Royal Challengers lost Parthiv Patel early to Sunil Narine. With AB de Villiers out due to injury, Bangalore experimented with Akashdeep Nath. But Nath could only manage 13 runs off 15 balls and Russell had him caught by Uthappa. Royal Challengers were 59 for 2 in 8.5 overs with Kohli on an uncharacteristic 33 off 27 balls. It was Moeen Ali who the tone for Bangalore to amass another 153 runs off 67 balls and to present a big target for the opposition.

Moeen Ali set the tone for the Bangalore total Source

Ali hit six sixes and 5 fours on his way to 66 off 28 balls. Not sparing any bowler, he virtually took Kuldeep Yadav to the cleaners. Yadav did ultimately get Ali out caught but had conceded 3 sixes and 2 four in the previous five balls of that over. A devastated Kuldeep Yadav finished with 59 runs for 1 wicket from overs. He was to later commit several errors in the field including a miss-field that led gave Virat Kohli his century. At the end of 16 overs, Moeen Ali had left Royal Challengers at 149 for three and Marcus Stoinis replaced him.

Contrary to Virat Kohli’s painstakingly accumulating 50 runs which required 40 balls, his second half-century came off only 17 balls. He reached his century, his first since IPL 2016 when he flicked Gurney to long leg. Along with Stoinis he had put together a 64 runs partnership for the fourth wicket and took the team score to 213. Harry Gurney had Kohli caught by Shuman Gill at deep midwicket on the very next ball which was the last ball of the inning.

Andre Russel hit 9 sixes in his 65 runs Source

Dale Styne almost got the wicket of Chris Lynn off the first ball that he bowled since his injury lay-off had not Stoinis dropped the catch at first slip. Styne did, however, get his man caught by Kohli off the last ball of the very same over. Narine did hit three boundaries off Styne but was caught by Patel off Navdeep Saini. Styne accounted for Shubman Gill and Kolkata Knight Riders were 33 for 3 at the end of five overs. Robin Uthappa who came in at the fall of Gill’s wicket simply could not get going. By the time Uthappa was out in the twelfth over the required run-rate had risen to 16.62 runs per over.

Most other batsmen would have given up the task of scoring 135 runs from 49 balls which were required of KKR when Andre Russell came to the crease. But the big Jamaican set about it with gusto. Nitish Rana also picked up his scoring rate. Russell mostly scored in sixes. He scored 65 runs in 25 balls while hitting 9 sixes and two fours. He hit Chahal for three successive sixes in one over. Nitish Rana also played a mighty fine inning remaining not out with 85 runs (46 balls). The duo had put together 102 two runs in 64 balls if only to fall short of the target by 10 runs as Russell got run out on the penultimate ball of the match.

Nitish Rana played a good role in the attempt to chase down the RCB score Source

Though Royal Challengers Bangalore has won two matches, the same as Rajasthan Royals, they are still at the bottom of the league table by virtue of their lower net run rate and the latter has a game in hand. From here on Challengers have to play as if every match is a final and hope some other results go in their favour to have a chance of making it to the playoffs. KKR are placed just above the two bottom rankers having lost four matches in a row.