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Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers once again delivered the goods with their bats as their Royal Challengers Bangalore romped home with 9 wickets to spare against Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League contest at the Eden Gardens.
Kohli and de Villiers remained not out on 75 and 59 respectively while Chris Gayle contributed with a 31-ball 49. The Kohli-de Villiers partnership yielded 115 runs for the men in red and black. With the win, Bangalore stay alive in the competition with 6 wins from 12 games.
Chasing Kolkata's 183/5, they got off to a flyer as Gayle - who had been in slumber for much of this season - smashed the ball to all parts of the ground.
The burly Jamaican first took on Andre Russell hitting him for 17 in the third over and then clubbed Sunil Narine for two consecutive fours in the fifth.
After six overs, Bangalore were cruising at 63 for no loss but then Gayle was adjudged leg-before-wicket off a Narine delivery.
It was difficult to understand who the home team were as chants of 'Kohli, Kohli' went up time and again around the packed stadium as the Bangalore captain came in - and did not disappoint either as he picked the boundaries at regular intervals. However, Kohli was dropped at 32 by his opposite number Gautam Gambhir.The miss proved costly as Kohli got to yet another half-century, while his partner at the other end - de Villiers - started clobbering them too. Before long, the visitors were in touching distance of the total and the duo did the needful with 8 balls to spare. "t was a tricky chase because the wicket was a bit sticky. I knew I had to stay in. We spoke about that. Again, with AB coming out and taking the chase along with me, it feels wonderful. We haven't always played well in Kolkata, but it feels great that we'll carry this win to Bangalore," said Kohli.
Earlier, twin fifties from Gambhir and Manish Pandey and Andre Russell's late blitz of 19-ball 39 helped Knight Riders post a challenging total. Gambhir smashed a 34-ball 51, while Pandey contributed 50 off 35 balls while pacer Sreenath Aravind picked up figures of 2/41.
Even though the hosts lost Robin Uthappa (2) early, Gambhir manage to pick the gaps along with Pandey. .
Gambhir too pounced upon anything that was hurled loose, and by the end of the powerplay the Knights were 51/1. The onslaught continued in the next over as leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was carved for 16.
RCB then pulled things back a little in the next few overs and also grabbed the vital wicket of Gambhir who got run-out shortly after getting to his fifty and also ended Gambhir and Pandey's 76-run stand.
The hundred came up in the 12th over as Pandey smashed Watson for a flat six and then pinched a single. Thereafter, new man Yusuf Pathan and the already set Pandey failed to pierce the gaps. Runs dried down and Pandey was holed out in the deep trying to up the run-rate. Yusuf (6) too was out stumped.
Next to perish was Suryakumar Yadav (5) who was caught at long on by Iqbal Abdulla. The flurry of wickets also put a brake on the scoring rate much to the relief of RCB.
But Shakib al-Hasan and Russell enthralled the strong Eden crowd with some powerhitting to propel KKR to a challenging total. The last three overs yielded 38 runs for the home side.
Brief Scores
Kolkata Knight Riders: 183 for 5 in 20 overs (Gautam Gambhir 51, Manish Pandey 50; Sreenath Aravind 2/41) lost to Royal
Challengers Bangalore 186 for 1 in 18.4 overs (C Gayle 49, V Kohli not out 75, AB de Villiers not out 59) by 9 wickets
Delhi aim to bounce back against Pune
After being thrashed by Mumbai Indians in their previous match, Delhi Daredevils will aim to roar back into the IPL play-offs reckoning when they take on bottom-placed Rising Pune Supergiants here today.
Placed at the fifth spot with six wins from 11 matches, Daredevils will hope for some consistency in their remaining three league matches to book a place in the play-offs. On the other hand, already ousted from the race to the play-offs, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side Pune will aim to finish their debut season on a high after having managed to win just three matches out of 12.
The Zaheer Khan-led side will aim to put behind its huge 80-run loss to Rohit Sharma's team and hope the batsmen put up a strong performance. The batting will once again revolve around Rishabh Pant, Quinton de Kock, keeper-batsman Sanju Samson and Karun Nair with all-rounders Chris Morris and Carlos Brathwaite providing the late order fireworks.
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