Last night, at Eden Gardens of Kolkata, the underrated Kolkata Knight Riders started their Indian Premiere League’s journey for 11th season by giving a bang-on performance against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
KKR have been receiving a lot of criticism since the start of this season’s auction as they have revamped the whole setup and considering the fact that Gautam Gambhir wasn’t a part of the team, it won’t be wrong to say no one really had hopes from Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders but the team proved everyone wrong by giving a stunning performance last night and winning the match with four wickets.
Royal Challengers Bangalore gave a brilliant performance too but failed to win the match. Brendom McCullum scored 43 runs off 23 balls and pulled off 6 fours and 2 sixes.
However, the team gained momentum when AB De Villiers entered the ground and scored 44 runs in 23 balls with the strike rate of 191 and smashed 1 fours and 5 sixes.
Virat Kohli scored 31 runs in 33 balls. Virat Kohli first failed to get going on the deliveries of Sunil Narine and then it was Nitesh Rana who took the wicket of Virat Kohli and dismissed him off the ground.
On the other hand, Narine from Kolkata Knight Riders gave a brilliant performance by pulling off 50 runs in mere 19 balls, which included 4 fours and 5 sixes. Apart from him, Nitesh Rana scored 34 runs in 25 balls with the strike rate of 136 and smashed 2 fours and 2 sixes. Dinesh Karthik stayed till the end and scored 35 runs.
After the match was over, Sunil Narine said:
“It’s good to get the ball rolling in the first game. The support staff and everyone giving me a chance to open the batting. Whatever role the teams wants to play, I’m happy to do it. It’s a good cricket wicket, whatever you do on the field, it’s gonna benefit you.”
The captain of KKR, Dinesh Karthik after winning the match said:
“Feels very good. Nice to get to a good start. I felt it was coming too well against the pacers. When AB and Virat were playing it was tough. We just prayed to God that he [Narine] gets going. We all play for the crowd and we love to play for this team and this fantastic crowd.”
The captain of RCB, Virat Kohli after loosing the match said:
“I think we were 15 short with the bat. I played too many dot balls and couldn’t get any momentum going. Me and AB getting out in 2 balls to a part-timer was a game-changing event. Sunil took the game away from us with the way he batted. If you are giving 13 an over in the first overs on that sort of a wicket, it’s very difficult to comeback.
It’s difficult for the spinners to bowl on this pitch, the fast bowlers get some purchase and you can score runs as well. It has become a really good cricket wicket over the last couple of years. We made a pretty good game out of it, to drag it till the 19th over and take those wickets was a big positive.”
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