Kolkata Knight Riders’ Jason Roy plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kolkata Knight Riders at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on April 26, 2023. Photo: AFP
Jason Roy and skipper Nitish Rana helped Kolkata Knight Riders revive their faltering Indian Premier League campaign with a convincing 21-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday.
Roy’s 56 — his second successive half-century — and a 21-ball 48 by Rana guided two-time champions Kolkata to 200-5 after they were put in to bat first in Bengaluru.
Leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy took 3-27 as Kolkata’s bowlers restricted Bangalore to 179-8, snapping their four-match losing streak in the tournament.
Kolkata climbed a spot to seventh in the 10-team table with the money-spinning league now past the midway stage and teams jostling for four play-off places.
“You need a lot of character in the dressing room to give a performance like this in our situation,” said Rana. “The belief has always been there that we’ll bounce back.”
Chakravarthy, who was named man of the match, was ably supported by fellow spinner Suyash Sharma and fast bowler Andre Russell — both taking two wickets each.
Venkatesh Iyer pulled off a brilliant low catch in the outfield to dismiss Virat Kohli for 54 and silence the home crowd.
Kohli, who led Bangalore for a third straight game with regular captain Faf du Plessis playing as an impact sub due to a rib injury, had attempted to get the chase going in his 37-ball knock.
Bangalore’s batting faltered after the in-form Du Plessis fell for 17 following two sixes and Australian big-hitter Glenn Maxwell went for five.
“To be honest we handed them the game. We did deserve to lose,” said Kohli.
“We were certainly not up to standard. If you look at the game, we didn’t capitalise (on) our chances. We dropped a few chances which cost us 25-30 runs.”
Kolkata set a daunting target as Roy, who smashed five sixes in his 29-ball blitz, put on an opening stand of 83 with Narayan Jagadeesan (27).
The two departed in the same over only for Rana, who survived two dropped catches, and Iyer (31) to form a another destructive partnership of 80 for the third wicket.
Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga sent back the left-handed duo of Rana and Iyer in the 18th over as he returned figures of 2-24.
But Bangalore’s attempt to stem the flow of runs failed as Rinku Singh clubbed an unbeaten 18 off 10 balls and Namibia’s David Wiese made 12 off just three deliveries.
