Vinay Kumar finishes the game with a boundary off Khejroliya as Shah Rukh erupts in the stands and skipper Dinesh Karthik is super pleased as he remains unbeaten on 35 off 29 balls as Kolkata take the points home. Virat Kohli and boys will need to look into certain areas in the bowling line-up if they wish to be strong contenders in this IPL.
CricketNext’s expert Aakash Chopra: Both teams are lacking little bit of depth in batting. When you look at KKR, you know you are relying heavily on Nitish Rana. Can’t really fathom why you would restrain Andre Russell as well. He didn’t send him to bat ahead, in fact Rinku came into bat before him. That’s surprising. RCB’s tactic to go with five bowlers, that’s also questionable. How often does it happen in a T20 game that none of the bowlers have a bad day. But with this team you cannot afford it.
WICKET!! Woakes gets the better of Rinku Singh after the latter started the over by hitting a boundary. A DRS was needed to send back the left-hander to the dug-out. The umpires took quite some time to give that out as Russell now joins skipper Dinesh Karthik in the middle as KKR manage six from the over. Now 30 more needed off the last 4 overs as the score reads 147/5
9 runs from the Washington Sundar over again as DK gets another boundary. The best part about the DK-Rana partnership is that the two have not just hit the boundaries, but have also rotated the strike well to keep Kolkata in the game despite losing wickets. The score reads 107/3 after 11 overs
7 runs from the Khejroliya over here as the Kolkata batsmen are now looking to pick the singles and keep the scoring rate moving here as they cannot afford to lose another wicket here. The score reads 92/3 after 9 overs. DK and Rana will need to bat for a while and stitch a partnership here.
WICKET!!! Umesh Yadav has done it again as this time he gets the important wicket of Robin Uthappa. Umesh is hitting the deck hard and that was a poor pull from the KKR batsman as he top-edged it for McCullum to pick an easy catch. Just 4 runs from the over as Umesh looks to be on a mission here and the score reads 85/3
The star with the ball Nitish Rana comes to bat. But Umesh welcomes him with a perfect bouncer. He is bowling well here. Both the batsmen now need to target specific bowlers to hit. And Umesh hits Rana on the head with an accurate short-ball. A very good, pacy over comes to end. Just three runs coming from it. KKR 68/2 after six overs.
MISS: That could be a costly miss by RCB. Narine skied the ball towards the mid-on boundary. Fielder Mandeep Singh makes a mess of it, as he crosses the boundary. The umpire signals it as a six. And Narine gets to his 50 from just 17 balls. That is great batting by him. KKR 65/1 in 5 overs.
SIX: Sundar starts with tight lines and doesn't give any room for the batsmen to freeze arms. He has an economy of 6.62 in T20s. And he continues to stop the run flow. Narine, who smashed Chahal in the first over, just picks a single off Sundar. On the last ball of the over though, Sundar concedes a six. RCB 26/1 after three overs.
Mandeep Singh finishes with a flourish as skipper Virat Kohli loves how the batsman finished the innings, hitting 37 off 18 balls. Even though he was dismissed by Vinay Kumar, the strikes in the last over could actually decide how the match ends. Kolkata Knight Riders will need 177 to win this one as Vinay Kumar finishes by taking the wicket of Woakes off the last ball.
5 runs from the Andre Russell over here as Kolkata are right back in the game. 4 more overs to go after this and it will be interesting to see how Mandeep and Sarfraz go about this after the strategic break. They cannot take any longer to take the attack to the Kolkata bowlers. The score reads 137/4
BACK to BACK WICKETS!!!! Part-time spinner Nitish Rana gets the all-important wickets of AB de Villiers first and then Virat Kohli off successive balls as the crowd at the Eden Gardens erupts. Rana is pumped up here and that was a masterstroke from skipper Karthik here. The score reads 132/4 after 15 overs.
Dinesh Karthik (BCCI Photo)
| Rank | Team | Points | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | India | 5313 | 121 |
| 2 | South Africa | 5154 | 117 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 3886 | 102 |
| 4 | Australia | 4599 | 102 |
| 5 | England | 5029 | 97 |
| FULL Ranking | |||
