IPL 2021 | KKR vs RCB: Hits & Flops as Kolkata annihilate Virat Kohli’s men in his 200th IPL appearance
It was Royal Challengers Bangalore’s skipper Virat Kohli’s 200th appearance in the Indian Premier League, but instead of getting memorable, it turned out to be something that he would hardly even want to remember or consider as a part of his long illustrious career. His team was beaten by nine wickets as the target f 93 set up by them, after getting bowled out within 20 overs, was chased down by the Knight Riders within 10 overs to rub all the salt that there might be on the open wounds of the Challenges.
Although RCB might be reeling from disappointment in their first venture in the UAE leg of the league which they were almost bossing in India in May this year, for KKR, it was a welcome change as it turned out to be their only third win this season from eight games and pushed them straight to number five on the points table courtesy of outstanding improvements in the net run rate. By the way, this was also the 200th game for KKR, so one way or the other, one of the 200th games remain memorable.
As it happens with every game, it has its heroes and its villains for every team and we call them Hits and Flops here at OneCricket so let’s get started.
Hits
Varun Chakravarthy
It would be hard to count him out especially after what he did with the last standing hopes of the RCB, removing Glenn Maxwell and Wanindu Hasaranga in two consecutive deliveries just when a partnership seemed to be developing. His googlies had no answers from the batters of the team in light blue and the variations turned out to be too good to be read well by any o the lower-order batters.
The 30-year-old spinner eventually finished with figures of 3/13 in his four overs as apart from Hasaranga and Maxwell, he also removed Sachin Baby. Chakravarthy was hence rightly selected as Man of the Match for his performance.
Andre Russell
He is expected to win the games with the bat in crunch situations for the Knight Riders as he is basically their crisis man. But what he did today with the ball was simply outstanding. He not only removed the most dangerous batsman Ab de Villiers with a toe crushing yorker but was also able to finish the innings and get the opposition bowled out by removing Mohammad Sira on the last ball of the 19th over even as TV commentators speculated on the ideas of who would ball the 20th over for the men in purple.
The man from Jamaica, after removing Siraj finished with figures of 3/9 from three overs as he had also put Srkkar Bharat out of his miserable stay at the crease to claim his second wicket in the game and Siraj was his third.
Eoin Morgan
He might not have bowled, neither was he required to bat, but his genius in the field as a skipper was marvellous and a thing of mastery.
The bowling changes, of bringing in a quick Prasidh Krishna and asking him to try and move the ball to Kohli, changing the ends of Lockie Ferguson and Andre Russell to deny predictability and finally bringing in Chakravarthy to take the ball away from Maxwell, just as he was settling in was like ticking all the boxes.
And Morgan did tick all the boxes. It seemed as if vintage morgan was at the display with all his manoeuvring and as a result, the Knight Riders registered their biggest win of the season.
Flops
Virat Kohli
There are a lot of flops, to say the least as the entire RCB team got down for just 92 on the board. Picking out the worst two seems like rather difficult a task, maybe more difficult than RCB trying to get to at least 100 runs in their skipper’s 200th game!
However, if the ship sinks, the leader must shoulder the blame, especially if the reason for starting the sinking is the captain of the ship itself. Kohli getting out was disastrous. The delivery on which he got out was not an unplayable ball what so ever and for a player of his stature, it would be definitely considered a failure if he is unable to stay at the crease for a long period of time and gets out on such deliveries.
In the field too, his captaincy was languid and bowling changes looked forced rather than fluid. He can’t be pinned for all things worse, but this was a game that he would like to forget as soon as possible.
Wanindu Hasaranga
World number two T20I bowler and also known to wield the willow, it was a harrowing debut for the Sri Lankan in the IPL. not only did he get out for a golden duck, but he also wasn’t able to look like his shadow best with the ball.
It is true that he had almost nothing to play with as a leg spinner, defending a total of 92 and that he was brought in very late in the fourth over when he should have been on right from the first one, but his trajectory of balls was all over the place and he seemed like lacking a lot of things, confidence included.
Much like his skipper, the trump card in UAE would look to forget this unforgettable experience as soon as possible and get ready for the next challenge as Playoffs is still in sight for the RCB.
Special Mention: Shubman Gill & Venkatesh Iyer
The two players might not be considered as impactful as a Russell of Chakravarthy, but what they did was extremely important to boost the morale of the Knight Riders. Not only did they play without any fear and got quick runs. but they also managed to revive the almost dead run rate of their team. Considering the fact how young Gill is and this being the debut for Iyer, it was more than a brilliant opening partnership in which they added 82 in just nine overs.
In their next game, the RCB play table-toppers Chennai Super Kings while the Knights would look to ride the money into their clash with the Mumbai Indians.
 "Abhishek Singh")
