KKR beat RCB: Knight Riders will face Capitals in IPL 2021 Qualifier 2
The Kolkata
Knight Riders advanced to the qualifiers by defeating the Royal Challengers
Bangalore by four wickets. Kolkata won the toss and chose to bat first.
With this win, Kolkata will face off against the Delhi Capitals in the second
qualifier. Royal Challengers Bangalore were eliminated from the tournament.
All-rounder Sunil Narine, who excelled with both the bat and the ball, handed
Kolkata the victory. Bangalore's innings was restricted to 138 for 7 wickets in
20 overs, while Kolkata scored 139 in 19.4 overs.
Kolkata got
off to a solid start in the chase with openers Shubhman Gill and Venkatesh
Iyer. In the first five overs, both batsmen scored 40 runs. However, Harshal
Patel, the tournament's orange cap holder, broke the opening partnership in the
second ball of the sixth over by dismissing Gill and Iyer later.
Gill was replaced by Rahul Tripathi at the crease. The team score crossed 50 in 6.2 overs. But Rahul could not hold on. Rahul who scored just six runs, was caught in front of the wicket by Yuzi Chahal. With this, Kolkata smelled danger.
Nitish
Rana and Venkatesh, who later reached the crease, played very carefully.
Kolkata's pace slowed as Kohli dropped the spinners. Shahbaz squandered a
golden opportunity to oust Venkatesh Iyer, a setback for Bangalore. However, in
the 11th over, Herschel returned Iyer to give Kolkata the lead.
Iyer,
who scored 26 off 30 balls, was caught wicketkeeper Bharath on Harshal's ball.
Kolkata were 79 for three at stumps. Iyer was replaced by Sunil Narine at the
crease. Narine eased the pressure with a six off the first ball of the innings.
Narine stormed in with a six off the second and third balls thrown by Dan
Christian. The team score crossed 100 in 12 overs.
Chahal,
however, struck again to dismiss Rana, who batted patiently for 23 runs. De
Villiers caught the player and sent him away. Dinesh Karthik replaced Rana at
the crease. In the last three overs, Kolkata needed 15 runs to win. In the
second ball of the 18th over, Narine was dismissed. Siraj bowled Narine for 26
off 15 balls. Narine was replaced by captain Eoin Morgan at the crease.
In the fourth
ball of the same over, Siraj returned Dinesh Karthik to the crease. Karthik,
who was close to 10, was caught by wicketkeeper Srikar Bharath. Siraj conceded
just three runs in that over. With this, Kolkata set a target of 12 runs in the
last two overs.
Karthik was replaced by all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan at the crease.
The target was set at seven in the last over.
Shakib opened
the door for Kolkata with a win in the fourth ball. Bangalore were eliminated
from the tournament. Shakib was unbeaten on nine and Morgan on five.
For Bangalore, Siraj, Chahal and Herschelle Patel took two wickets
each. For Kolkata, Sunil Narine took four wickets for just 21 runs in four
overs.
As Virat
Kohli is stepping down as RCB captain, this was the RCB's final match with
Kohli as skipper. Kohli said in the post-match interview that he will be seen
in RCB's jersey in the later seasons but only as a player and will not be
playing for any other franchises.
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