IPL 2023 KKR vs RCB: Varun, Roy give Knight Riders 3rd victory

Playing their 8th match in the TATA IPL 2023 in M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, both Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders are clashing at the Eden Garden on 26 April.

With the pitch suggesting a boast for the batting-friendly surface, one should have chosen batting after winning the toss. But, despite winning the toss, RCB skipper Virat Kohli chose to bowl first, citing some assistance for the spinners.

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KKR innings:

Opening to bat first, KKR batters Jason Roy and Narayan Jagadeesan did a fabulous job today. The opening pair gave a solid start to the innings, with Roy completing his half century and scored 56 runs in 29 before being sent back to the pavilion in the 10 over by KKR’s Vijaykumar Vyshak.

Prior to that, in the same over, Vijaykumar Vyshak departed another set batter Narayan Jagadeesan who scored 27 runs in 29 balls.

Following this, reliable Venkatesh Iyer and skipper Nitish Rana set their foot on the pitch and built another good partnership. Iyer too scored well and was dismissed in the 18th over by Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva. He scored 31 runs in 26 balls. Hasaranga also departed KKR skipper Rana who was about to complete his half-century. He scored 48 runs in 21 balls.

By the completion of 20 overs, KKR had scored 200 runs after losing 5 wickets.

For RCB, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva picked two wickets each. While, Mohammed Siraj clinched one wicket. 

RCB innings:

Chasing a the target at the home ground, RCB’ skipper Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis appeared firm on Wednesday. Both the batters gave a solid start to RCB.

However, in the third over by Suyash Sharma, Faf du Plessis had to walk towards the pavilion after scoring 17 runs in just 7 balls. Following this, Shahbaz Ahmed (2) and Glenn Maxwell (5) gave away their wickets to Suyash Sharma and Varun Chakravarthy.

With Mahipal Lomror entered the field to bat, there was hope in his eyes to score for the team and he did perform. Before leaving the ground in the 12th over, he scored 34 runs in 18 balls. Soon after this, Kohli — who scored a half-century — was dismissed by Andre Russell in the 113th over. He scored 54 runs in 37 balls.

RCB’s reliable Dinesh Karthik entered the field and tried scoring runs, while on the other side, the batting order kept on collapsing. Suyash Prabhudessai (10) and Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva (5) walked back soon. Ultimately, Karthik too was shown the door to pavilion by Varun in the 18 over. He scored 22 runs in 18 balls. The RCB could only score 179 runs after losing 8 wickets and lost by 21 runs to KKR. 

For KKR, Varun Chakravarthy picked 3 wickets, while Suyash Sharma and Andre Russell took two wickets each.

Looking at the current IPL points table, RCB still stands at the 5th spot with 4 wins and 4 losses, while KKR has moved up at 7th spot with 3 wins and 5 losses.