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IPL 2020| RCB vs KKR: Hits and Flops as an AB de Villiers special seals the deal for Virat Kohli’s men

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Coming on the back of a comprehensive win over the Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore took Kolkata Knight Riders to the cleaners as they defeated them by a huge margin of 82 runs. While RCB’s innings was more or less all about the AB de Villiers show, Kolkata could drag themselves to only 112 after being outfoxed by the spin duo of Washington Sunder and Yuzvendra Chahal. 

Choosing to bat first on a relatively slower track compared to previous Sharjah wickets, Virat Kohli and his men had a cautious start until a certain de Villiers entered the party. It was de Villiers with the bat and the spinners with the bowl that stood out for the RCB in their win against the Knight Riders. 

For the Kolkata team though, there was just no single person who could be called as not guilty in an effort that looked much like a waste of energy as the match ended in a classic one-sided affair. To pick two it would be the new entrant Tom Banton and the old fox Andre Russell, who would be called the culprits of the desert for KKR. 

All these players and their contribution (or the lack of it) in the game forms the part of the Hits and Flops segment of the match. 

Hits

#1 AB de Villiers

When de Villiers entered the ground with RCB at 94/2 in the 13th over and even after him being there for more than 10 deliveries and captain Kohli at the other end, the innings wasn’t actually moving one bit as the team slumbered to 112/3 in 15 overs. But as Kamlesh Nagarkoti was brought back into the attack, the former South African captain started smoking the balls out of the park. 

From 11 off 10 deliveries, de Villiers went damn crazy as ended up with 73 off 33 balls, which means, he scored the next 62  runs off just 23 balls. It was his inning that got RCB from ending at 160-175 to 195. The inning was so special, mostly because no other batsman had the ability skills, and execution to control the pace of the bowler that well.  


#2 Washington Sundar

Sundar has been bowling brilliantly for the Challengers since the last 3-4 games, While in other games had generally been just economical, in this one, he chose to diversify his role as a wicket-taker and took two crucial wickets of Eoin Morgan and Nitish Rana. 

More than the wickets, what was important was the fact that he became un-hittable, and batsmen (who had not got out by then) tried to play him off as easily as possible, thereby stopping the flow of runs. The Tamil Nadu born ended up with the figures of 2/20 in his four overs. 


#3 Navdeep Saini

Saini wasn’t among wickets in the match, he took only one. But that wicket was the one that shifted the balance in RCB’s favour. In his second over, he got rid of Tom Banton, the new entrant in the KKR playing eleven, with a ball that wasn’t just a ripper but almost a perfect length ball, beating Banton on all fronts and crashed through his defense. Saini though ended up with the figures 1/17 in three overs. 


Flops

#1 Andre Russell

Andre Russell is someone that KKR looks up to win them 3-4 games of the season single-handedly. However, this series has been one of the worst for the West Indian as he hasn’t been able to contribute much with the bat for the team. 

Apart from the game against Rajasthan Royals where he scored a quickfire 24 off 14 balls, nothing worth noticing has come from Russell’s bat. Even in today’s game, after bowling two responsible overs, the guy bowling theirs over was asked something and killed as well.  


#2 Tom Banton

Playing only his 1st IPL game, Banton couldn’t actually handle the system as he was bowled by a KKR fast bowler. Banton's wicket put pressure on others to follow suit and thus many other people were wither bowled or caught out. But not being able to score, putting pressure on others make Banton a flop for sure. 


Having lost the game in such a bad way, Dinesh Karthik and Co. would cool off for the next three days before facing Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi. RCB would be up against the Kings XI Punjab in two days' time though.

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IPL 2020 | RCB vs KKR: What Experts said as Challengers rout Knight Riders to enter top-3 in points table

There have been too many one-sided encounters in this season of the IPL so far, but none has been as boring as the on that took place today between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore at a venue which has been known for exciting thrillers in this season. In Sharjah, the Virat Kohli led team thrashed Dinesh Karthik’s KKR by a huge margin of 82 runs. AB de Villiers was at his hitting best today as he managed to score 73 off just 33 balls, while others struggled top even middle the delivery on a slowish and rugged Sharjah wicket, which has now started to offer to turn a bit. The Bengaluru spinners in Washington Sunder and Yuzvendra Chahal took advantage of it as they choked the flow of runs, thereby forcing the Kolkata batsmen to commit mistakes. No one from the KKR was able to hold the fort against the Bangalore attack as they could only make 112 runs off their 20 overs at the fall of nine wickets while chasing a mammoth 195. Captains’ Viewpoint With two comprehensive wins out of two games, captain Kohli was in the best of the moods, especially because the wins came after the Delhi disaster, which had lowered the morale of the team which is in search of the elusive trophy. Speaking during the post-match presentation, the winning skipper praised his team for being such a bunch in which one player or the other steps up to perform every time. “Coming here, it was important to get the right start. Great to see individuals step up when the team requires,” he said. Impressed with the way the bowlers have bowled, Kohli said that it is always possible to go ‘deep’ into the tournament if “your bowling unit is strong”. “Bowling unit, with Morris coming in, looks all the more potent,” he further added. The slowness of the pitch at Sharjah surprised all. Kohli too was aware of it and accordingly, the team made the changes in the plan. “At the toss, the pitch didn't have the usual Sharjah sheen. Knew the wicket was going to get slower and slower,” he said. “Barring one super-human, everyone struggled on that pitch. The talk was around 165-170,” he praised de Villiers. Calling the three-week camp before the IPL, a blessing in disguise for the team, Kohli credited it for the clarity in his head. “Preparation was really good. The three-week camp helped us. Have clarity of plans. Know exactly what we want to do on the field,” he said. AB de Villiers was the real difference between 160 and 195. Acknowledging that, the 33-year-old Indian captain said, “I thought I had a few balls under my belt so I'll start striking. But he came in and hit his third ball nicely. On a pitch like that, only AB can do that. It was a special knock,” he said. He further added, saying that the team could get to 195 ‘purely because of the genius of that man.’ On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik, who had been brilliant as a captain in the last two games, with all his tactical changes, was at the receiving end of the things. He credited opposition player de Villiers for taking the game away from him and his team. “He (de Villiers) is a world-class player and hard to stop him on a ground like this and at the end of the day his innings was the difference between both sides,” said Karthik. Reflecting upon such a humiliating loss, the skipper said that the team “needs to sit down and make sure” that few things are done in a better way. Calling batting the prime concern for the team, Karthik said, “We didn't do well today (in that department) and that's something we gonna try and improve. We have three days break and we need to start fresh after that.” Refusing to read too much into the defeat, Karthik humbly accepted that his team was outplayed today. “I think every captain has a day like this where everything doesn't go according to plan and it's one of those days for me, I don't want to read too much into it,” concluded the 36-year-old. Expert Opinion Ab de Villiers’ batting and the fact that Karthik chose to play an extra batsman instead of six bowlers were the main talking point of the game apart from the brilliant bowling by RCB. Boria Majumdar, a well-known cricket expert praised skipper Kohli for showing to the world that ego has no place in sports in general and in a team game in particular Aakash Chopra, the cricketer-turned cricket analyst pointed at Andre Russell's batting, saying that he has not been able to perform with the bat, the way KKR would have wanted and this is a major reason for the failure of the Kolkata based side. According to Harsha Bhogle, one of the most trusted cricket voices in the world, the change in the RCB has come courtesy of a change in the plan of asking de Villiers to keep wickets. For Ayaz Memon, Ab de Villiers was on an altogether different level, especially with the stark difference evident between his and the batting of the men who played on the same wicket. Kolkata-based senior sports journalist Joy Bhattacharjya rated the Bangalore spinners as top-class calling them an example of things to come in UAE with respect to turn and spin. The Knight Riders now have a three-day break to ponder upon their strategy with which they would come out to play against Mumbai Indians in Abu Dhabi. Virat Kohli's team though has only two days' time before they face a Kings XI Punjab which would now be from the burden of qualifying for the Playoffs and hence could be more dangerous to face in Dubai.

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IPL 2020: Captain Rohit Sharma warns Mumbai Indians against complacency

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