Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine’s big hitting helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) sweep aside out-of-sorts Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by six wickets in a rain-interrupted Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Sunday.

It was a surprise when Narine came out to open the batting with the fit-again Lynn instead of in-form skipper Gautam Gambhir but the West Indian who has been doing the job at the top of the order for KKR this season vindicated the team management’s faith in him.

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Pursuing RCB’s 158/4, KKR romped home with 159/4 in 15.1 overs riding on a 105-run stand by Narine (54; 17b 6×4 4×6) and Lynn (50; 22b 5×4 4×6) in just 6.1 overs at a run rate of 17.02. Narine registered the fastest half-century in the IPL, reaching the 50-run-mark in just 15 balls.

KKR are now second in the points table with 16 points from 12 outings. They play Kings XI Punjab in Mohali before ending the league engagements at home against already-qualified Mumbai Indians.

The morning showed the day as far as KKR’s chase was concerned with Lynn — back from a shoulder injury — smoking Aniket Choudhary for two fours and a six on the trot. Sreenath Aravind was taken for 26 runs in one over as the maverick pair took the game away from RCB in the Powerplay itself.

Narine was the first to depart, top edging a Aniket Choudhary delivery which wicketkeeper Kedar Jadhav collected safely. Lynn was castled by Pawan Negi (2/21) who also accounted for the wicket of Colin de Grandhomme (31; 28b 1×4 2×6) while Yuzvendra Chahal sent Gambhir (14; 16b; 0x4 0x6) back in the hut. Yusuf Pathan (0 not out) and Manish Pandey (4 not out) saw the out the win for the men in purple.

Earlier, Travis Head’s pyrotechnics towards the end of the innings helped Royal Challengers Bangalore erase a top order collapse to post 158/6 in 20 overs. Mandeep Singh (52; 43b 4×4 1×6) also played well to graft the innings after the big three of Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers failed to contribute. Head (75 off 47 not out), who is playing in place of Shane Watson, and Mandeep stitched together a 71-run stand for the fourth wicket to stem RCB’s rot and at the end it was about the Australian’s big hitting.

While Mandeep took time to steady the ship and pace his innings to perfection, Head saved his shots for the last smashing Ankit Rajpoot and Chris Woakes for two sixes in consecutive overs to up the run rate. In the last over, Head tonked Umesh Yadav (3/36) for two sixes and a four on the trot to take away 21 runs. Put in to bat, Gayle played a lazy shot first ball of the match for Gambhir to complete the simplest of catches at short cover off Umesh’s bowling. Mandeep looked to take on Chris Woakes, opening the bowling in place of injured Nathan Coulter-Nile, hitting the England pacer for a four and a six off back-to-back deliveries.

Kohli’s (5; 9b; 0x4, 0x6) poor form continued unabated as the India captain could not make the most of his reprieve when Piyush Chawla grassed him at mid-off to get out in the very next ball. He fell to Umesh’s slower delivery with the ball striking his back foot for a plumb leg before wicket decision. 

Narine sent De Villiers (10; 8b 2×4 0x6) back in his first over with the out of form South African shuffling across the crease to miss the ball completely and losing his stumps as a result. Mandeep and Head took almost nine overs to engineer a 50-run stand for the fourth wicket. There was a period where RCB could not find the fence for five overs before Head pulled Ankit Rajpoot behind square leg for four.

Play was stopped for around 38 minutes after which Mandeep brought up his half century but the interruption in their partnership saw Narine taking the prized wicket of Mandeep. Kedar Jadhav holed out to Umesh who ran from long off to pouch the ball to help Chris Woakes grab a wicket. Negi added just five runs to the total before falling to Umesh in the final over.

IANS

Kings XI Punjab produced an excellent bowling performance to defeat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 19 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Friday.

Defending a low total of 138 runs, Punjab dismissed the star-studded RCB batting line-up for 119 runs in 19 overs.

Medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma and left-arm spinner Axar Patel were the stars of the show with three wickets each.

Patel returned figures of 3/11 in four overs while Sandeep took 3/22.

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The win keeps Punjab in the running for a spot in the play-offs as they have 10 points from an equal number of matches, while RCB have been knocked out of the reckoning as they have a mere five points from 12 matches.

Except for opener Mandeep Singh who made 46 runs off 40 balls before bowled by Glenn Maxwell, none of the RCB batsmen could tackle the Punjab bowlers.

The dominance of the Punjab bowlers can be gauged from the fact that only three RCB batsmen could reach double figures.

Earlier, RCB restricted Kings XI Punjab to 138/7 in their allotted 20 overs.

Patel (38 not out) and Manan Vohra (25) were the major contributors to Punjab’s cause.

Punjab got off to a poor start as openers Hashim Amla (1) and Martin Guptill (9) were sent back to the pavilion inside five overs.

Amla was dismissed by medium pacer Aniket Choudhary on the penultimate ball of the first over and Guptill was dismissed by Sreenath Aravind in the fourth over.

With 18/2 in 3.3 overs, Marsh and Vohra tried to stabilise the innings and they were almost successful but after adding 21 runs in 3.3 overs the latter was sent packing by spinner Pawan Negi. In his 17-ball knock Marsh slammed three boundaries.

Vohra, who seemed good at the middle was also dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the 12th over. Vohra’s 28-ball knock was laced with one boundary and one six.

Skipper Glen Maxwell (6) also failed to rise to the occasion as he was also dismissed by Chahal in the very next over.

Middle-order batsmen Wriddhiman Shah (21)and Patel then forged a 34-run partnership to help the visitors to get past the 100-run mark.

But soon, Shah, who played 25 balls and slammed one boundary, was bowled by Shane Watson in the 18th over.

In the very next over, new batsman Mohit Sharma (6) was also dismissed with the scoreboard reading 119/7.

The last over saw some boundaries from Patel but that was not enough for Punjab to post a challenging total.

For Bangalore, Choudhary and Chahal scalped two wickets each while Aravind Watson and Negi chipped in with one wicket each.

IANS

The Indian Premier League (IPL) match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Tuesday was called off due to incessant rain.

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Both the teams will share a point each as the rain refused to relent.

RCB with five points in their kitty are placed at sixth in the IPL team standings while the visitors are at third with nine points from their eight outings.

IANS

A dejected Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday admonished his batsmen after collapsing to a 82-run defeat against the Kolkata Knight Riders here, saying such performance from the famed batting line up was “unacceptable”.

Calling it the RCB’s “worst batting performance”, Kohli said that “it really hurts”.

The visitors were bundled out for 49, the lowest total in the Indian Premier League after the KKR, put in to bat first by Kohli, were all out for 131.

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“After the kind of half that we had, we thought we could capitalise and chase it down. Reckless batting. I can’t say anything at the moment. It was that bad. This is just not acceptable,” said a visibly annoyed Kohli, who himself scored a golden duck.

The India captain, however, claimed he was distracted by a spectator.

“The sightscreen is very small here, one guy got up as the bowler was loading up, that distracted me. Still it wasn’t a big deal. That was just one down,” he said.

Kohli said the team needed to move on, leaving behind the poor show.

“We need to forget it and move forward. We’re a much better team. We got 200 plus in the last game. I’m sure everyone realises what they’ve done wrong.

“You have to come out, show intent and back yourselves. I’m sure we won’t bat like that again in the tournament.

“We’re going back home for a couple of games. We’ve got back-to-back games, need to try and win those to get some momentum,” he said.

IANS

Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) ended their three-match losing run as they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 27 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) game at the Chinnaswamy stadium.

Asked to bat, Pune suffered a late batting collapse but managed to post a competitive total of 161 for eight in 20 overs. In reply, RCB put up an below-par show, being restricted to 134/9, as they suffered their hat-trick of losses.

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For Pune, Rahul Tripathi (31) and Ajinkya Rahane (30) provided a 63-run opening stand and a 58-run third-wicket stand between captain Steven Smith (27) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (28) led to expectations that they would score around 175.

But Dhoni and Smith fell off successive deliveries starting from the final ball of the 16th over. They lost three more wickets within three runs. But Manoj Tiwary’s quickfire 27 off 11 deliveries helped them get past 161.

However, the competitive total could easily have been a match-winning one, thanks to the start they got from Tripathi (31) and Rahane (30), who posted 61 at the end of Powerplay overs (six).

Both scored at a fair clip, Tripathi especially impressive with hitting three fours and a six against pacers Adam Milne and Sreenath Aravind.

Rahane too looked fluent, timing the ball nicely as he hit five fours in his 30-run knock.

Leg-spinner Samuel Badree broke the opening partnership as Rahane missed the length completely, allowing the ball to dismantle his stumps, with Pune at 63/1 in 7.4 overs.

The following over, bowled by left-arm spinner Pawan Negi, saw Tripathi hitting straight at Virat Kohli at short cover.

These two quick wickets brought Steven Smith and Dhoni to the middle and a partnership slowly flourished.

Dhoni, who had 28 runs so far prior to this match, showed flashes of his destructive self, hoicking a delivery from leg-spinner Yuzvender Chahal to the roof of the stadium in the leg side.

Smith too joined in the act as the pair got their side past 100 in 13.2 overs.

But just when both were seeming to be dangerous going into the last overs, Dhoni and Smith were bowled in successive deliveries off Shane Watson and Aravind, respectively, leaving Pune at 127/4 in 16.1 overs.

Five deliveries later, Aravind removed Daniel Christian (1). The following over saw Kiwi paceman Adam Milne dismissing Ben Stokes (2) and Shardul Thakur (0) in the first two deliveries, as Pune plunged to 130/7.

Later, Tiwary cracked three fours and two sixes off the 11 deliveries he faced to lift Pune to 161/8.

Chasing the innings, RCB didn’t get a good start, losing opener Mandeep Singh (0) who edged one to wicket-keeper off Shardul in the second over.

Captain Virat Kohli, who at the personal score of 11 got a reprieve as Tiwary dropped a regular catch at first slip off a Shardul delivery in the second over, could only score a 28 off 19 deliveries.

With Kohli’s dismissal, following a miscued shot which landed in the hands of Rahane at deep cover off a Stoke delivery, the hosts were at a spot of bother at 41/2 in 5.3 overs.

RCB bowlers operated with discipline, giving no room for the batsmen. The problem for RCB turned worse as a set A.B. de Villiers (29 off 30) was stumped by Dhoni in the bowling of leg-spinner Imran Tahir, reducing the hosts to 70/3 in 10.2 overs.

Kedar Jadhav (18) and Shane Watson (14) too struggled against the the likes of Tahir and medium pacers Stokes and Daniel Christian.

With the required run rate mounting, a frustrated Jadhav jumped down the track only to drag Jaydev Unadkat delivery on to his stumps, as RCB tottered at 91/4, still needing 71 in 5.1 overs.

Watson followed Jadhav soon to the dug-out after being bowled by Stokes, as RCB looked down the barrel at 101/5 in 15.5 overs.

Shardul dealt a double double blow to RCB, dismissing dangerous-looking pair of Pawan Negi (11 off seven) and Stuart Binny (18 off eight), to plunge the hosts to 125/7 in 18 overs.

Unadkat then got into the act, removing Samuel Badree (0) in the 19th over from which RCB could only score six, needing a mountain to climb. Stokes accounted for Adam Milne (2) to seal the game for Pune.

IANS