Live
Live blog - Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Kolkata Knight Riders - Narine and Salt overcome Kohli fuelled RCB
By Alagappan MuthuKKR win
Kolkata Knight Riders (Venkatesh 50, Narine 47) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 182 for 6 (Kohli 83, Russell 2-29, Rana 2-39) by seven wickets
It took 10 matches for IPL 2024 to produce a victory by the away team. Though it was perhaps predictable that it came at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, where its small ground really does favour whichever team ends up chasing. That, on Friday, was Kolkata Knight Riders, who overcame a Virat Kohli masterclass to chase down 183 and claim the two points.
Faf du Plessis, in the post-match presentation, mentioned that RCB did try to take the learning from the first innings - how the slower balls were sticking in the surface - and put it to use but they were impeded by the dew that had set in. Venkatesh, who was the top-scorer for KKR, mentioned that it got easier for batting at least from one end. How easy? Well, according to ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball data, both RCB and KKR bowled a similar number of slower balls - 21 and 22 - but that still cost RCB 13.42 an over whereas KKR slipped by with an economy rate of 5.45. Andre Russell was particularly hard to hit, varying his pace from 150kph all the way down to the 110s kph. When he does the Sunil Narine job and Narine does the Russell job, where is an opposition supposed to go? KKR are looking dangerous this season.