From AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli's partnership to Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar's spin magic, everything worked in favour of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) who defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 82 runs.
AB de and Kohli scored 83 runs in the final five overs as they helped RCB post a massive total of 194 runs.
De Villers played an unbeaten knock of 73 runs from just 33 balls while Kohli scored an unbeaten 33.
After opting to bat first, RCB got off to a good start as openers Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch struck regular boundaries. Both played brilliantly and took the team over the 50-run mark in the seventh over.
The duo formed a 67-run partnership before Andre Russell bowled Padikkal (32) in the eighth over. Finch too was then bowled in the 13th over which ended the batsman`s 47-run innings.
Kohli and de Villiers then came out to bat. De Villiers started playing with an attacking mindset and smashed KKR bowlers. Continuing his aggressive batting, de Villiers completed his half-century in just 23 deliveries.
KKR bowlers struggled to stop de Villiers from hitting big shots as the player powered RCB to a very competitive total. During the match, Kohli and de Villiers formed a 100-run partnership.
While RCB dominated with the bat, they made sure to do the same with the ball. KKR's highest individual score came from Shubman Gill who scored 34 off 25 balls. Andre Russell (16) and Rahul Tripathi's (16) cameo did not help much as well as they kept losing wickets at regular wickets.
KKR were staring at a rate of over 13 with 10 overs to go, which then led to a flurry of wickets as the new batsmen didn't have time to settle in. Chris Morris and Washington Sundar took two wickets each while the rest got a wicket each to their name.
RCB pace bowlers gave nothing away. Chris Morris, Mohammed Siraj, Navdeep Saini were all sharp and accurate, while the spin bowling pair of Chahal and Sundar did their job. Their combined figures were 8 overs, 32 runs, and 3 wickets.
(Inputs from ANI)
