Knight Riders bagged a six-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday (April 30) night to bag two crucial points in the Indian Premier League.
On a spin-friendly track at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, RCB posted 175 for 4, and in reply, Chris Lynn orchestrated a successful chase with an unbeaten knock of 62 off 52 balls.
Sent in to bat, RCB got off to a good start, not losing any wickets for the first eight overs. Brendon McCullum and Quinton de Kock hit seven boundaries and three sixes between themselves to take the total to 67 without loss before the latter was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav. De Kock scored 29 off 27 balls.
McCullum nicked birthday-boy Andre Russell to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps in the 10th over to give KKR control over the proceedings. The bowlers tightened the noose and though Virat Kohli played well to score an unbeaten knock of 68 off 44 balls, lack of support at the other end meant RCB could not up the ante at the death.
Russell accounted for Manan Vohra too, sending the batsman back to the hut without troubling the scorers. The big Jamaican bagged his third with the wicket of Mandeep Singh (19 off 14), before de Grandhomme partnered Kohli to help the hosts go past the 150-run mark.
Kohli hit some fantastic strokes to the fence, and de Grandhomme chipped in with 11 off sic balls to give RCB a good total on a turning pitch.
KKR started the chase well, with Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine putting in a 59-run opening partnership. Rain intervened for a bit, but the Karnataka State Cricket Association's sub-surface aeration and vacuum-powered drainage system ensured there were no overs lost when play resumed at 10:55 pm IST.
Narine fell soon after the rain break, looping a catch to de Grandhomme at long-off trying to hit M Ashwin over the fence. But by then, Narine had done his job, contributing 27 runs off 19 balls with three boundaries and a six.
Robin Uthappa joined Lynn in the middle up next, and the duo continued to attack and kept the scoreboard ticking. Uthappa hit 36 off 21 balls, his knock studded with three boundaries and three sixes.
Ashwin got his second wicket when Uthappa failed to clear the long on fence, giving a catch to Tim Southee near the ropes in the 13th over. That brought Nitish Rana to the middle and he partnered Lynn in yet another substantial stand.
By the time the final strategic timeout was taken, the scoreboard read 133 for 2 in 16 overs, and KKR needed 43 runs off 24 balls with eight wickets in hand.
Nitish, who batted well to get to 15 off 10 balls, was retired hurt after pulling up with a niggle. Andrew Leipus, the team physio, was quick to attend to him and decided to take him off the field.
Russell came out to bat but mis-hit the first ball he faced to throw up a high catch for de Kock to lap up running back. Lynn was then joined by Karthik, and they didn't let the pressure build on the chase.
Karthik hit a few glorious shots to the fence in his 10-ball knock of 23, before Lynn and Shubman wrapped up the chase with five balls to spare.
