Savage attack on KKR by Maxwell and de Villiers

RCB maintained their unbeaten run, registering their third win of the campaign in Match 10, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Chasing a target of 205 runs, KKR ended their chase at 166 for eight in 20 overs, leaving RCB victors by 38 runs.

Even before the tournament began, the KKR batting line-up was thought to be highly suspect.

Over-reliance on ageing veterans like Karthik. and Russell and lack of back-up options for Shubman Gill were the main chinks in their armour.

The match with RCB underlined these deficiencies yet again as none of the batsmen really got going.

The law of averages caught up with Nitish Rana as he fell for just 18.

Shubman Gill looked like a man in a hurry.

He started aggressively by smashing Mohammed Siraj to the cover boundary and then blasted Jamieson for a four and two sixes in four balls to reach 21 off just eight balls.

However, he was a victim of poor shot selection as he tried to drive Jamieson without being fully in control and holed out to Christian at mid-on.

Eoin Morgan (29), Shakib Al Hasan (26) and Andre Russell (31) all started well but couldn’t make it count.

Dinesh Karthik’s batting flop show continued as he was leg before to Chahal for just 2.

Kyle Jamieson was in good form for RCB, taking three wickets.

However, the most influential spell for RCB was bowled by Harshal Patel.

More than his figures of 2/17, this performance confirmed that Bangalore have got themselves a death-over specialist. 

Amazingly, Patel also did not concede a single boundary in his four overs.

What’s more, he has been the most economical bowler in the tournament (5.75). 

Moreover, he also leads the dismissals tally with nine wickets.

Washington Sundar bagged the sole wicket of Rahul Tripathi.

RCB lose wickets in the beginning

Batting first, RCB had a shaky start, losing captain Virat Kohli in the early stages, followed by Rajat Patidar.

Varun Chakravarthy bagged both the wickets.

Glenn Maxwell, coming in at No. 4 stabilised the innings and had good partnerships with Devdutt Padikkal and AB de Villiers.

In the process, the Australian all-rounder slammed 78 runs off 49 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes.

It was an explosive innings by a batsman in red-hot form but it paled in comparison with the performance of 37-year old AB de Villiers.

De Villiers put the KKR attack to the sword, with an unbeaten knock of 76 runs off 34 balls, studded with nine fours and three sixes.

In the last over, de Villiers mauled Andre Russell, hitting him for 21 runs.

With Kyle Jamieson chipping in with 11 off 4, RCB managed to score 56 in their last three overs, finishing with an imposing 204 for 4.

Andre Russell had an economy rate of 19, his 2 overs costing 38 runs.

Prasidh Krishna and Pat Cummins also managed one wicket each.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 204 for 4 (Maxwell 78, de Villiers 76*, Chakravarthy 2-39) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 166 for 8 (Russell 31, Jamieson 3-41, Harshal 2-17, Chahal 2-34) by 38 runs.