IPL
Bengaluru/UNI: Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) ended their four-match losing streak on the back of a good all-round performance led by Jason Roy's fifty and three-fer by Varun Chakravarthy, defeating hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 21 runs at Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Wednesday.
Roy scored a sizzling 56 off 29 balls after hammering 4 boundaries and five maximums.
After KKR lost the plot in the middle despite a fiery start, captain Nitish Rana made RCB pay dearly for two drops. And then, Rinku Singh and David Wiese came in and took the team's total to 200 in a hurry.
Chasing 201, RCB came out all guns blazing scoring 30 runs off the first two overs, but leggie Suyash Sharma gave the breakthrough for the visitors in his very first over by removing inform batsman and Impact Player Faf du Plessis for 17 off 7 balls.
Sharma sent back Shahbaz Ahmed (2) plumb in front in his very next over and Chakaravarthy sent back Glenn Maxwell (5) in the final over of the powerplay.
For the first time in this season, RCB lost three wickets inside six overs and they lost two of their in-form batsmen in the process.
Mahipal Lomror (34 off 18) took the aggressor's role as he and Kohli (54 off 37, 6x4s) forged a half-ton partnership.
KKR fought back as they removed both the set batsmen within a span of five deliveries.
While Lomror fell to a short ball, a superb catch from Venkatesh Iyer ended Kohli's knock.
Post that, the visitors kept chipping in with wickets and never allowed RCB back into the game.
Earlier, Roy was a treat to watch as he scored 56 in 29 balls after cracking four boundaries and five maximums. He also put on a crucial 83 runs partnership for first wicket along with opener N Jagadeeshan in 9.2 overs.
Jagadeeshan almost scored a run a ball, and was caught by David Willey off local lad Vijaykumar Vyshak for 27 off 29 balls, after hammering four boundaries.
Before Rana was removed by Wanindu Hasaranga, the KKR captain had put on 81 runs stand for the third wicket along with Venkatesh Iyer.
Rana was also lucky to have been dropped twice, but he made most of the chances and brought KKR in the reckoning.
Hasaranga also sent back Iyer in the same over after he made 31 off 26 balls with three hits to the fence. Andre Russel failed yet again as the powerful West Indian was cleaned up by Mohammad Siraj for one.
Rinku Singh (18* off 10, 2x4s 1x6) and David Wiese (12* off 3, 2x6s) played some exciting shots to take KKR to 200.
Hasaranga (2/24) and Vyshak (2/41) were the pick of the bowlers for Bangalore and they would be a little disappointed as they spilled 69 runs in the last five overs.
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