RCB stars put KKR to the sword

Cricket365
May 25, 2016

Royal Challenge Bangalore coasted to a nine-wicket victory on Monday as they chased down the Kolkota Knight Riders' impressive target of 184 with ease.

KKR would have been feeling reasonably happy with their decent total, but it proved no match for RCB's world star batting line-up, as Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers all made valuable contributions in a winning chase.

Following the early dismissal of Robin Uthappa, Guatam Gambhir and Manish Pandey combined smartly for the home side, each contributing half centuries and putting on 76 runs for the second wicket before Gambhir was run out.

Yusuf Pathan would not last long, but Andre Russell continued to show his value with a quickfire 39 runs at a strike rate of over 200.

Together with Pandey and Skahib Al Hasan, Russell helped KKR to a defendable total of 183/5.

KKR's chances were always going to rely on their ability to dismiss at least some of the RCB stars cheaply, but their bowlers couldn't do the job on this occasion.

Openers Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli both got in on the act, putting on 71 runs for the first wicket in just over seven overs before Gayle was caught in front by his countryman Sunil Narine.

That brought AB de Villiers to the crease and he and Kohli would be unmoved for the remainder of the innings.

The duo's surge towards the KKR total was unstoppable on the day, as they dominated all of the bowlers to wrap up the result with eight balls to spare.

Kohli hit five fours and three sixes on the way to 75 not out from 51 balls, while De Villiers smashed the same amount of boundaries in his 59, which came at a superb strike rate of 190.