Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) once again humiliate Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), but, this time around they did it with their batting as they won the match by 6 wickets with 29 balls to spare. It was clearly one of those days where bowlers are just helpless as almost every ball gets hit for a boundary in powerplay overs. They shared a rapid-fire partnership of 105 from 37 balls as Sunil Narine registered his first T20 century from 15 balls and also equaled the record of the fastest half-century in IPL across all seasons.
Chris Lynn’s comeback into the side proved to be a miracle for KKR broke all the records and put on the highest number of runs in the powerplay overs. KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir once again trusted his ‘great gambler’ instincts and demoted him down the order as Lynn and Narine came to open the innings in an attempt to chase down 159.
Watch Sunil Narine’s fifty here
It was a whirlwind partnership as Narine scored 54 from 17 balls including 6 fours and 4 sixes and Lynn scoring 50 from 22 balls, featuring 4 fours and 4 sixes. They took the game away from RCB in a matter of few overs. After their wickets, Colin de Grandhomme scored 31 from 28 balls piling on RCB’s misery.
Watch Chris Lynn’s comeback fifty here
RCB’s big three players flopped again as Chris Gayle got out for a duck followed by Virat Kohli scoring 5 and AB de Villiers scoring 10. Despite three early wickets Travis Head and Mandeep Singh saved RCB from another batting collapse and scored half-centuries. Though Mandeep got out early, Head went on to score 75 from 47 balls taking RCB to a respectable total.
