AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell come up with two crucial innings to help Royal Challengers Bangalore(RCB) to clinch a comfortable win by 38 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders(KKR) on Sunday. The batting duo helped RCB to post 204 runs on a tricky pitch in Chennai. Previously, scores of 150-160 have turned out to be a match-winning total in IPL 2021 on the same track.
KKR never got themselves in a dominating position throughout the chase. Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, and Rahul Tripathi showed the right intent, but they couldn’t last long on the pitch. Dinesh Karthik was dismissed cheaply by Yuzvendra Chahal.
There was a small partnership between skipper Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hasan, but they couldn’t keep up with the scoring rate. Andre Russell came up with late fireworks, but the target was way beyond KKR’s reach. RCB showed composure in the death overs to make it three wins out of three in IPL 2021.
Just like Rohit Sharma on Saturday, Virat Kohli also decided to bat first after winning the toss. The plans to bat first didn’t start well as Varun Chakravarthy managed to dismiss Virat Kohli in the second over. Rahul Tripathi took a brilliant running catch to dismiss Kohli. Chakravarthy struck twice in the same over by taking the wicket of Rajat Patidar.
Glenn Maxwell straightaway started hitting the ball well and helped RCB to capitalise in powerplay overs. It was a strange decision from Eoin Morgan to introduce pace bowlers after two wickets came from spin-bowling during powerplay overs. Maxwell raced to his half-century, while Devdutt Padikkal played the support role. The youngster was eventually dismissed in the second half of the innings.
Once the platform was set by Maxwell and Padikkal, AB de Villiers lit up the stage with his full range of shots. The South African batsman hammered four boundaries and three sixes to score 76 runs in 34 deliveries. He particularly to Russell apart in the death by scoring runs across the park. For now, RCB has found the right balance between bat and ball to maintain 100 percent record in IPL 2021.
Scorecard
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 204/4 (Glenn Maxwell 78(49), AB de Villiers 76(34), Varun Chakravarthy (2/39), Prasidh Krishna (1/31))
Kolkata Knight Riders: 166/8 (Andre Russell 31(20), Eoin Morgan 29(23), Kyle Jamieson (3/41), Yuzvendra Chahal (2/34)