Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer outmuscle Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy

Sunil Narine marked the occasion of his 500th T20 game by haunting Royal Challengers Bengaluru with the bat as he smashed 47 off 22. Venkatesh Iyer took over the baton from Narine to hit 50 off 30 as KKR negated Virat Kohli’s 59-ball 83* that took RCB to 182 for 6. What looked like an above-par total at the halfway stage was chased down by KKR with 3.1 overs to spare.

 Phil Salt got the chase going by smashing his last-season nemesis Mohammed Siraj for two sixes and a four in the 18-run opener over, after which Narine took over. Alzarri Joseph looked to go short and fast, but the small dimensions of the Chinnaswamy stadium meant even mistimed hits from Narine carried over the ropes. Joseph beat him for pace a couple of times, but still conceded two sixes in a 14-run over. Narine then saw through a slower one from Siraj in the fifth over for a six over deep square leg before laying into Yash Dayal in the final over of the PowerPlay, picking up two fours and two sixes in a 21-run over. With that, KKR blazed away to 85/0 in 6 overs.

Mayank Dagar arrived and cleaned up Narine with a full ball, and Salt holed out to the deep square leg fielder off RCB’s impact substitute Vijaykumar Vyshak. That however, wasn’t the way back into the game that RCB thought it was as Venkatesh Iyer walked in to maintain the tempo set by the openers. He gave Dagar the charge for a six down the ground and hit a four off Vyshak to keep RCB on their toes. Faf du Plessis brought back Joseph, which tipped the scales further in KKR’s favour. Venkatesh smashed a short of length slower one for a six over midwicket, pierced the off-side field with a deft cut and then pulled one short ball for a six over fine leg. The ball then flew off the top-edge for a four in a 20-run over.

By the time Yash Dayal dismissed the left-hander, he’d scored a 30-ball 50 and put KKR well on course for a win. Even as Vyshak used change of pace well, there was very little room for RCB to turn the game around from this stage.

Virat Kohli went after Mitchell Starc in the PowerPlay and built a stand with Cameron Green, who carted Narine for two fours and a six in the sixth over. Despite du Plessis’s early exit, RCB picked 61 runs in the PowerPlay to set themselves up for consolidation in the middle-overs.

RCB had two pace hitters in the middle and KKR unleashed slow bowlers to push them on the backfoot. Left-arm spinner Anukul Roy did his job as a solid match-up, conceding just six runs in his two overs despite bowling one in the Powerplay. Narine was treated with disdain even after the PowerPlay, but Andre Russell’s ability to hit the pitch hard and vary his pace restricted RCB’s progress significantly.

He sent Green packing off an innocuous delivery but was bang on for the rest of his spell, finishing with 2 for 29. He beat Kohli too with his change of pace, bowling as many as 11 dots in his four overs. Varun Chakaravarthy, who had been held back for the arrival of Glenn Maxwell, started with a three-run over where he too foxed Kohli repeatedly.

Maxwell and Kohli took the mystery spinner down in the next over as they looked to drag RCB out of the post-PowerPlay slump. They took runs off Harshit Rana and Narine as Maxwell was offered two reprieves through dropped catches. However, Starc, Russell and Harshit bowled three very good over at the death – full of slower ones – to concede just 19 runs. Kohli, who found the going a little tough through the middle, went after Starc in the final over, hitting him for a six. Dinesh Karthik hit Russell for a couple of sixes in the 19th to push RCB ahead after being pinned back in the preceding overs. Starc finished with figures of 0 for 47 as RCB scored 29 off the last two overs to go past the 180-run mark. That however, proved to be insufficient in the end.

Brief Scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 182/6 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 83*, Cameron Green 33, Glenn Maxwell 20, Dinesh Karthik 20; Harshit Rana 2-39, Sunil Narine 1-40, Andre Russell 2-29)  lost to  Kolkata Knight Riders 186/3 in 16.5 overs (Phil Salt 30, Venkatesh Iyer 50, Sunil Narine 47, Shreyas Iyer 39*; Yash Daval 1-46, Mayanak Dagar 1-23,  Vijaykumar Vyshak 1-23) by 7 wickets

What next?

RCB have a three-day break before hosting Lucknow Super Giants on April 2. KKR head to Vizag where they go up against ‘hosts’ Delhi Capitals on April 3.