IPL24: KKR blows away RCB with explosive batting , Narine , V Iyer shines

 In the first 9 matches of IPL 2024, the team playing on the home ground won. But now this streak is broken. Royal Challengers Bangalore were crushed by Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets at M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 182 runs for 6 wickets with Virat Kohli's unbeaten half-century. KKR batted explosively from the beginning and achieved the target in the 17th over itself. The team won the match with 19 balls to spare. This is KKR's second consecutive win. At the same time, RCB has suffered its second defeat in three matches. RCB has not been able to beat KKR on its home ground since the 2015 season.

Apart from playing an unbeaten 83 off 59 balls with four sixes and four fours, Virat Kohli added 65 runs for the second wicket with Cameron Green and 42 runs for the third wicket with Glenn Maxwell. Green scored 33 while Maxwell scored 28 runs.  Dinesh Karthik finally scored 20 runs in eight balls with the help of three sixes. For KKR, Andre Russell took two wickets for 29 runs while Harshit Rana took two wickets for 39 runs.

 KKR captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and decided to bowl first. Kohli opened his account with a four on the first ball of Mitchell Starc's innings while captain Faf du Plessis (8) hit a six off Harshit Rana. But he played the next ball into Starc's hands at short third man. Kohli then hit a beautiful wristy leg side 6 off Starc .  Green welcomed Sunil Naraine, who was playing his 500th T20, with two consecutive fours and a six in the sixth over, helping RCB score 61 runs for the loss of one wicket in the power play.

Green (33 off 21 balls ) hit his second six off Andre Russell but was bowled off the next ball. Kohli completed his second consecutive half-century off 36 balls with a six and a run off leg-spinner Varun Chakraborty. Maxwell completed the team's century in the 12th over with two consecutive fours off Chakraborty. Maxwell could not take advantage of the two lives and was caught by Rinku Singh off Narine's ball in the next over for a 19 ball 29 . Russell then dismissed Rajat Patidar (3) while Harshit dismissed Anuj Rawat (3) to take RCB's score to 151 for five. Karthik hit two sixes off Russell as soon as he came. He also hit a six off Starc before being run out off the last ball of the innings. Kohli was left 83 not out in 59 balls & he could not finish strongly after an explosive start during powerplay. 

Kolkata Knight Riders got off to an explosive start with openers Phil Salt and Sunil Narine. Siraj conceded 18 runs in the very first over. Yash Dayal conceded 14 runs in the second over. 14 runs were scored against Alzari Joseph in the third over and 11 runs against Siraj in the fifth over.  Yash Dayal conceded 21 runs in the last over of the powerplay and KKR openers plundered 85 runs after 6 overs in blistering style . Narine led the way with explosive shots while Salt looked equally aggressive.  This is the team's second-highest score in the powerplay. In 2017, KKR had scored 105 runs in 6 overs against RCB on the same ground.

However, Narine could not score a fifty and was bowled by Mayank Dagar. He scored 47 runs off 22 balls with the help of 5 sixes and 2 fours. In the next over, Salt became the victim of Vijaykumar after scoring 30 runs. After losing 2 wickets off 9 balls, Shreyas and Venkatesh Iyer took charge of the innings. Captain Shreyas was struggling but Venkatesh played shots according to his mind. He hit 20 runs in an over against Alzari Joseph with blistering pulls amongst other shots . Then 17 runs were scored in the over against Siraj and Venkatesh completed his fifty off 29 balls. Both Iyers added 75 runs for the third wicket. Venkatesh was out on the first ball of the 16th over after a blistering 50 in just 30 balls .  After this, the team needed only 16 runs to win. Captain Iyer hit a six and gave the team victory. He remained unbeaten after scoring 39 runs with Rinku on 5 not out . Sunil Narine for his explosive 47 & 1 crucial wicket was  the player of the match .