On Monday, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) IPL 2021 journey came to an end as Kolkata Knight Riders comfortably beat them in the Eliminator in Sharjah. With the 4-wicket win, KKR is now all set to play Qualifier 2 of the ongoing tournament against Delhi Capitals (DC).
Despite captain Virat Kohli’s commendable batting effort, RCB remained restricted to the total of 138 for 7 wickets in 20 overs thanks to the magical spell by KKR spinner Sunil Narine. Narine delivered his dream spell and single-handedly dominated the batting giants of RCB. He picked up 4 wickets for 21 runs including the wickets of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell. Kohli was the top scorer for RCB with his 39 runs off 33 balls.
On the other hand, Narine also contribute 26 runs with his bat making the 139-run chase a bit easier for the team KKR. The match went to the last over only due to the impressive bowling performance from RCB bowlers Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel and Mohammed Siraj. All three of them took 2 wickets each and tried to give KKR a good fight. However, KKR’s consistent batting performance enabled them to secure victory in 19.4 overs.
KKR skipper Eoin Morgan was all praise for the West Indies spinner who in the Eliminator set a new record for the most number of 4-wicket hauls in the IPL. Morgan said, “He makes it look very very easy. On an improved wicket in Sharjah, he bowled outstandingly. Throughout the innings, we continued to take wickets to post the first six overs. He’s a true legend of T20 cricket and we’re delighted to have him.”
“Onwards and upwards for us. For us it’s a matter of coming back, adjusting and seeing what the wicket does. Looking forward to it. The cricket that we have played and the consistency we have shown has surprised everybody,” Morgan added, talking about KKR’s performance in the UAE-leg of the IPL 2021.
With this match, Kohli made an exit from his role of RCB captain. In the post-match conference, he stressed that he had given his 120% and is looking forward to continuing playing as an RCB player till his retirement from the T-20 format.
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