Kohli and Gambhir – 2 players who’re quite similar in their playing side for both of them like to be aggressive on the field, they’re expressive in their ideology of the game and both of them do not hesitate to take on tough situations and put their best game forward.
| Kolkata Knight Riders | vs | Royal Challengers Bangalore |
| Date | 16 May 2016 | |
| Venue | Eden Gardens, Kolkata | |
| 183/5 (20) | 186/1 (18.4) | |
Royal Challengers won by 9 wickets |
||
Gambhir’s KKR love to chase but the toss didn’t go in their favor and therefore they were put into bat first. RCB mde the change of including Iqbal Abdulla in their side replacing Varun Aaron. KKR continued with the strategy to play 3 spinners and remained unchanged from their last match.
The KKR top order has had a mixed IPL – in some matches it has clicked and in some it hasn’t. Somewhere the feeling comes that Uthappa perhaps hasn’t been as consistent as one would expect of him; today wasn’t his day either as he was dismissed for 2 in 4 balls.
The innings got some momentum in the partnership between Gambhir and Manish Pandey lasting 76 runs before ending in dismay over a run-out, the fault in which was of both the batsmen in Gambhir and Pandey while Gambhir didn’t make a clear call, Pandey could’ve resisted the run considering the ball went straight to point.
Gambhir was dismissed after making 51 in 34 balls. A few overs later, KKR lost Manish Pandey too for 50 and the innings lost the gained momentum with another fall of wicket, this time Yusuf Pathan for just 6 runs in 12 balls and with due consideration to the kind of form that he’s been in; there were lots of expectations from him to fire in the match.
Russell’s 39 in 19 proved to be vital as KKR went from 125-5 to 183-5 in 20 overs, a respectable score on the Eden Gardens pitch but with RCB having the BIG 3 – Kohli, Gayle and Villiers; was it enough?
RCB in their chase started briskly courtesy of Gayle’s quick-fire 31 ball 49 that included 5 fours and 4 sixes. The score was 71 after 7.3 overs, RCB maintaining the run rate of 10 to the over. After Gayle’s wicket the next man IN was Villiers and with the kind of form that he’s been in along with Kohli, the duo together has clicked more often than not this season – putting up 4 partnerships of 100 prior to this match and this match resulted in their 5th 100 run partnership this season.
Kohli’s 75 in 51 and Villiers 59 in 31 made the chase seem quite easy for RCB. KKR never really looked like having the upper hand in the chase and while it is true that until the 17th over the required run rate was 10 to the over but with Kohli and Villiers playing; 10 to the over becomes easily manageable.
This win puts KKR in bit of a tricky situation requiring to win 1 of their last 2 matches in this leg of the tournament to qualify for the playoffs while the RCB need to win 2 of their remaining 2 matches to qualify – but with the kind of form that Kohli and Villiers are in and Gayle finding some form in this match, the playoffs don’t look distant.
STAT : Kohli with 752 runs this season becomes the highest run-scorer in a single season in IPL’s history.
KKR vs RCB Squads for 16 May 2016 Match 48
Kolkata Knight Riders
Gautam Gambhir (C), Piyush Chawla, John Hastings, Brad Hogg, Jason Holder, Sheldon Jackson, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Lynn, Manan Sharma, Morne Morkel, Colin Munro, Sunil Narine, Manish Pandey, Yusuf Pathan, Ankit Rajpoot, Andre Russell, Rajagopal Sathish, Shakib Al Hasan, Jaydev Unadkat, Robin Uthappa (W), Suryakumar Yadav, Umesh Yadav, Shaun Tait
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Virat Kohli (C), Varun Aaron, Abu Nechim, Sreenath Aravind, Samuel Badree, Stuart Binny, Yuzvendra Chahal, AB de Villiers (W), Praveen Dubey, Chris Gayle, Travis Head, Iqbal Abdulla, Kedar Jadhav, Akshay Karnewar, Sarfaraz Khan, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Adam Milne, Harshal Patel, Lokesh Rahul, Parveez Rasool, Kane Richardson, Sachin Baby, Mitchell Starc, Vikas Tokas, Shane Watson, David Wiese, Tabraiz Shamsi, Chris Jordan
RCB vs KKR Video Recap
[button color=”” size=”large” type=”” target=”” link=”https://sports.beebulletin.com/tag/ipl-2016-match-highlights/”%5DTap Here for all IPL 2016 Match Highlights[/button]
