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Turning Point: KKR fail to recover

October 22, 2020 07:15 IST

Nitish Rana is bowled by Mohammed Siraj

IMAGE: Nitish Rana bowled by Mohammed Siraj. Photograph: BCCI
 

Mohammed Siraj ripped through the Kolkata Knight Riders top order before the spinners weaved their web around the KKR batsmen to take Royals Challengers Bangalore to second on the IPL points table.

Electing to bat after winning the toss, KKR got off to a nightmarish start.

Siraj was the wrecker-in-chief picking three wickets inside five overs, with Navdeep Saini chipping in with Shubman Gill's scalp.

Dinesh Karthik took 13 balls to get off the mark and looked ill at ease against the spinners and was eventually dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal for 4 off 14 balls.

Captain Eoin Morgan put on a semblance of a fight back (30 off 34), a lone one at it, as none of the other batsmen could get going.

Runs were just not coming as spinners Chahal and Washington Sundar put a lid on the scoring. Partnerships were hard to come by.

After Morgan's dismissal in the 16th over, Lockie Ferguson tried to push but all he could manage was a four while scoring through singles and twos at the back end.

With no substantial partnerships or intent-filled batting, it was always going to be a task as all KKR managed was 84.

It was never going to be enough and RCB got to the target in just 13.3 overs in a clinical all-round performance.

NORMA ASTRID GODINHO