A collective effort from Kolkata Knight Riders saw them clinch a seven-wicket victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their second IPL 2024 fixture, on Friday. Chasing 183, the visitors got a good start from Sunil Narine (47 off 22 balls), and the momentum was carried forward by Venkatesh Iyer (50 off 30 deliveries) and Shreyas Iyer (39* off 24 balls), as KKR reached 186/3 in 16.5 overs.
It became a rather one-sided affair, despite Virat Kohli’s gritty unbeaten knock of 83 runs off 59 balls taking RCB to 182/6. It looked like a challenging total, but Narine’s start made it look like a poor one.
Praising his captain’s decision to bowl after winning the toss, Venkatesh said, “I think the wicket got better. Credit to you, you chose to bowl first. That was a very good decision. Important toss for us to win. You saw out there, it got better to bat. It was important for us to understand that the ball bowled at a slower pace was not coming on to the bat as nicely. So I think that was very important for us. Credit to Sunny for what he did in the second innings.”
Narine’s strong start put KKR in cruise control mode and it made everything easier for Venkatesh and Shreyas, who wrapped up proceedings with 19 balls to spare. “It was important for me to carry on the momentum. We have all spoken about taking the momentum through and if we do get a platform, then banking on it. That’s what Sunny did, he gave us an amazing start and all I had to do was just go and capitalise on that. When you came in, I think the communication among us was amazing. You know which bowler to take on, which end to look for shots and I think that really helped us,” he further added.
Meanwhile, KKR skipper Shreyas revealed how the pair planned their batting approach against RCB in the second innings. “To be honest when we were communicating in between, the wicket was two-paced and from one end it was coming great onto the bat and from the other end, it was stopping a bit, getting some extra nip with the slower one. So, that’s what basically I realised that this is the way we have to play and one end we have to target the bowlers and from the other, we need to atleast get ball-to-ball runs. That was the communication which we had and that was the mindset to finish off the game,” he said.
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