Venkatesh Iyer revealed that the pitch was two-paced, slightly slower in the first innings.© BCCI
After his team’s victory against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their Indian Premier League (IPL) match, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Venkatesh Iyer praised all-rounder Sunil Narine for taking the pressure off the batting side with his explosive power play shot. Veteran West Indies star Narine made his 500th T20 outing memorable for him and KKR as he shone with an all-round show, helping his team to a dominant seven-wicket win over RCB at the Chinnnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
During the match, Venkatesh smashed a half-century but appeared to have injured his back during the knock while playing a shot.
“Let’s see how my back is. I will know after a scan. The ball was arriving well into the evening. The credit goes to Sunil Narine, whose runs took the pressure off us. All that was left was to complete the formalities. With a platform like that, you have to maximize (on his mindset). Also, my fiance was here today, so it was a special day. (Facing Vijaykumar Vyshak) The rhythm in “It was easy to take them to the cleaners. This happened to us in our bowling innings as well,” Iyer said during the post-presentation. match.
RCB batter Kohli was criticized for his slow hitting, despite the star batter scoring 83 off 59 balls.
However, Venkatesh revealed that the pitch was two-paced, slightly slower in the first innings.
“The wicket was two-paced and double-bounced in the first innings. And it was very difficult to hit boundaries in the first innings. And the pitching was improving in the second innings in yesterday’s match in Chinnaswamy,” he added.
After KKR won the toss, they chose to field. After losing skipper Faf early, Virat Kohli had a 65-run partnership with Cameron Green (33 in 21 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) and a 42-run stand with Glenn Maxwell (28 in 19 balls, with three four and a six). Virat scored 83* in 59 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes and took RCB to 182/6 with Dinesh Karthik (20* in eight balls, with three sixes) in their 20 overs.
Andre Russell (2/29) and Harshit Rana (2/39) were the picks of KKR’s bowlers.
In the run chase, Phil Salt (30 in 20 balls, with two fours and two sixes) and Sunil Narine (47 in 22 balls, with two fours and five sixes) got KKR off to a good start with a quickfire stand of 86 points. 39 balls. After Vyshak and Mayank Dagar (1/23 each) dismissed the openers, Venkatesh Iyer (50* in 30 balls, with three fours and four sixes) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (39 in 24 balls, with two fours and two sixes ) guided KKR. to a seven-wicket victory with 19 balls to play.
Sunil won the ‘Player of the Match’ award in his 500th match for his knock of 47 and a wicket.
RCB are sixth in the points table with one win and two losses. They only have two points. KKR are second with two wins from two matches and four points.
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