BENGALURU: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are set to play their second match against Kolkata Knight Riders in this season of Indian Premier League at M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
RCB won the last two matches under the captaincy of their old skipper Virat Kohli as Faf du Plessis played as an impact player in both games. The consecutive win came against Punjab Kings by 24 runs and Rajasthan Royals by 7 runs respectively.
In the previous match against RR, Faf du Plessis’ authoritative 62 off 39 and Glenn Maxwell’s blockbuster 77 off 44 helped RCB post 189/9. Harshal Patel then roared back to form with a crucial spell of 3/32 as he held his nerve in the last over and defended 20 to win the match for RCB. David Willey and Mohammed Siraj scalped one wicket each.
Meanwhile, KKR is searching for their third tournament win as they failed to win any games in the last four outings. KKR had played their previous match against Chennai Super Kings, losing it with a huge margin of 49 runs.
Chasing 236, Kolkata Knight Riders were rocked early as opener Sunil Narine was cleaned up by CSK’s Impact Player Akash Singh without opening his account, off the fourth ball of the innings. N Jagadeesan departed in the second over.
First Jason Roy (61) and later Rinku Singh (53*) tried to chase the mammoth total but their efforts were insufficient. In the bowling unit, Kulwant Khejroliya took two wickets conceding 44 runs, Suyasg Sharma dismissed one batter conceding 29 runs and Varun Chakaravarthy also took one scalp conceding 49 runs.
RCB is placed at the fifth position in the IPL points table having four wins and three losses whereas KKR is placed at the eighth position with two winnings and five losses. (ANI)