Images from the Indian Premier League match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders, in Abu Dhabi, on Monday.
Kolkata Knight Riders came up with a superb all-round display to trounce Royal Challengers Bangalore by nine wickets in the Indian Premier League match, in Abu Dhabi, on Monday.
Showing serious intent after a mediocre outing in the first phase of the league earlier this year, the Knight Riders’ bowlers fired in unison to bundle out the Royal Challengers for a paltry 92.
The opening duo of Shubman Gill and debutant Venkatesh Iyer then produced some awe-inspiring batting to chase down the target of 93 in just 10 overs.
The supremely-talented Gill was out for a 48 off 34 deliveries while Iyer, who could have been a successful management professional after completing his MBA in finance and giving up a placement as a tax consultant, displayed fine composure during his 27-ball 41 not out.
The pair put on 82 runs for the opening wicket off 55 balls.
With 11 required off 65 balls, Iyer finished off the one-sided affair in grand style. He first picked the googly from Yuzvendra Chahal and reversed it square on the off-side for a four.
The left-hander the came down the track and smashed the next, a fuller one, straight down the ground for another boundary before pulling Chahal for a third straight four.
The result will not just boost morale immensely but also improve KKR's net run rate going ahead.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders' bowlers fired in unison to bundle out Royal Challengers Bangalore for a paltry 92.
Opening the bowling, architect-turned-mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy did the star turn, taking three wickets for 13 runs in an excellent four-over spell.
Star all-rounder Andre Russell also bagged three wickets, including AB de Villiers for a golden duck, while Lockie Ferguson snared two for 24 runs.
Devdutt Padikkal was the highest scorer with 22 runs in a forgettable outing in skipper Virat Kohli's 200th match for the Royal Challengers.
Bowling the day's second over, right-arm medium pacer Prasidh Krishna dealt RCB a huge blow when he had Virat Kohli trapped in front of the wicket with his fourth delivery, which jagged in and hit the opener above the knee-roll.
Having completed a double century of matches for RCB, Kohli went for a review, but the ball-tracking technology confirmed that it was going on to hit the stumps.
This was immediately after Kohli sent a Krishna delivery in front of square on the off-side for a lovely four.
New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson replaced Chakravarthy and the gifted Devdutt Padikkal smashed the pacer straight over his head to get things moving for RCB.
Krishna bowled back-to-back no-balls -- one front foot and one beamer -- in the next over and while debutant Srikar Bharat failed to break the shackles, Padikkal capitalised on the extra delivery with a boundary.
KKR skipper Eoin Morgan made another bowling change, bringing in Sunil Narine. While the Trinidadian spinner could not get a breakthrough in his first over, Ferguson succeeded in his second when he had Padikkal caught behind when the batsman tried to play the ball fine past the ‘keeper despite hardly getting any room to execute the ramp shot.
Russell ended Bharat's stay in the middle as the pressure mounted on the batsman.
And then came the biggest blow on RCB, when Russell bowled AB de Villiers for a first-ball duck with a top-notch yorker, targeting the leg-stump.
The Royal Challengers were in all sorts of trouble at 52 for 4 in the ninth over, and it only got worse for them with the departure of Glenn Maxwell, who brought about his own downfall with a needless heave against Chakravarthy's tossed-up delivery, and Wanindu Hasaranga, the team's other debutant, got out cheaply.
Both the batsmen were dismissed off successive deliveries on a surface that was on the slower side, something Kohli talked about after opting to bat at the toss.
