BENGALURU, India, CMC – West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell suffered another failure with the bat but grabbed two vital wickets, as Kolkata Knight Riders arrested their concerning decline with a 21-run over Royal Challengers Bangalore here yesterday.
KKR gathered an impressive 200 for five from their 20 overs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium but Russell managed only one – his fifth single digit score of the season.
English opener Jason Roy top-scored with a 29-ball 56 while captain Nitish Rana struck 48 from 21 balls and Venkatesh Iyer, 31 from 26 deliveries.
In reply, captain Virat Lohli led the run chase with 54 from 37 balls and Mahipal Lomror chipped in with an 18-ball 34, but RCB suffered a meltdown, losing a cluster of wickets in the crucial middle overs to end on 179 for eight.
Leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy led the attack with three for 27 while pacer Russell (2-29) and 19-year-old leg-spinner Suyash Sharma (2-30) finished with two wickets apiece.
The victory was only KKR’s third of the new Indian Premier League season but it saw them avoid a sixth loss to move up to seventh in the ten-team standings.
RCB, meanwhile, slipped to fifth on eight points but are still only two points off leaders Chennai Super Kings, who are only ahead of Alzarri Joseph’s Gujarat Titans on superior net run rate.
Sent in, KKR were galvanised first by Roy who punched four fours and five sixes in an 83-run opening stand with Narayan Jagadeesan (27), before Nitish and Venkatesh put on 80 for the third wicket to rally the back end.
Nitish struck three fours and four sixes while Venkatesh counted three boundaries before both perished in the space of three balls in the 18th over.
Russell fell to the final ball of the penultimate over after facing two deliveries, yorked leg stump by seamer Mohammad Siraj.
Faced with a required rate of 10 runs per over, Kohli tried to steer the RCB chase, posting 31 for the first wicket with South African Faf du Plessis (17) and then adding another 55 for the fourth wicket with the 23-year-old Lomror who belted a four and three sixes.
But Russell turned the game firmly in KKR’s favour when he got the prized scalp of Kohli, holing out to deep mid-wicket on the pull after striking half-dozen fours, the right-hander’s wicket one of five to tumble for 41 runs as the chase collapsed.
