Kolkata Knight Riders defeated RCB by 21 runs in IPL 2023 (Sportzpics)
IPL 2023: Kolkata Knight Riders ended their 4-match losing streak as they defeated RCB by 21 runs despite Virat Kohli’s fifty
Kolkata Knight Riders finally picked up a victory ending their four-match losing streak on Wednesday as they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 21 runs at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on April 26. Virat Kohli smashed a fifty, his fifth half-century this season but didn’t get the desired support from the rest of his batsmen as KKR restricted RCB to 179/8 in their respective 20 overs.
Earlier, Nitish Rana’s side had scored 200/5 after being invited to bat first by Kohli who had won the toss and elected to bowl first, looking to make it three wins in a row, instead, KKR ensured that the hosts lost their penultimate game the Chinnaswamy Stadium before they go out to play five matches on the road.
RCB vs KKR Highlights, IPL 2023: Kolkata Knight Riders Beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 21 Runs
Jason Roy smashed a fifty, stitching together a key 83-run opening stand with Narayan Jagadeesan. The KKR openers were cruising along very well before Vijaykumar Vyshak struck twice in quick succession to remove Roy for 56 off 29 balls, while Jagadeesan had earlier departed after scoring 27 runs.
Venkatesh Iyer stitched together a stand with skipper Nitish Rana, Iyer added 31 runs to the cause, and Rana smashed 48 off 21 balls with a blistering 228-run strike rate.
Rinku Singh’s unbeaten 18-run inning, combined with David Wiese’s 12-run inning in 3 balls helped put the finishing touch on KKR’s total as they reached the 200-run mark with a last ball six from Wiese.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore had maximised their powerplay in all of their previous game but failed to make it count against KKR as Rana’s side did the double and picked up their second win over RCB this season.
Virat Kohli scored 54 runs in 37 balls, but Faf du Plessis had an off day as he could only muster up 17 runs. Mahipal Lomror’s brief cameo of 34 from 18 balls did revive some hopes of RCB fans but once he departed, followed by Kohli’s catch by Venkatesh Iyer in the deep completely changed the match.
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Andre Russell claimed the wicket and from then on, the rest of the RCB batters just didn’t have enough gas in the tank to their side over the line and they fell short by 21 runs.
Varun Chakravarthy shone with his 3-wicket spell, giving away just 27 runs, Suyash Sharma got 2 wickets and Russell also chipped in with 2 wickets.
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