Sharjah: Bowlers, especially the spinners of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) bowled brilliantly to restrict Royal Chalengers Bangalore (RCB) to 138 for seven wickets in the IPL-2021 ‘Eliminator’ being played here Monday. Sunil Narine (4/21) was the pick of KKR’s spinners by picking up the three big fish – Virat Kohli (39, 33b, 5×4), Glenn Maxwell (15) and AB de Villiers (11). However, the other two Shakib Al Hasan (0/24) and Varun Chakravarthy (0/20) just gave away 44 runs in their eight overs to tighten the screws on RCB. The spinners were well-supported by pacer Lockie Ferguson (2/30) as the RCB batters failed to break the shackles.
The bowlers have given the Knights a fair chance of staying alive in the tournament. It now remains to be seen what the batters do, because they surely will not get such a great opportunity to beat RCB and remain alive in the tournament. Devdutt Padikkal (21) also got a look in, but then failed to carry on the good work against some tight and restrictive bowling.
Brief scores: RCB 139 for 7 (Virat Kohli 39, Sunil Narine 4/21) vs KKR. Match to continue