Kolkata Knight Riders 177 for 6 (Narine 50, Karthik 34*, Woakes 3-36) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 176 for 7 (De Villiers 44, McCullum 43, Rana 2-11) by four wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Sunil Narine pillaged a 17-ball half-century © BCCI
Sunil Narine‘s 17-ball half-century and Nitish Rana‘s all-round display helped Kolkata Knight Riders win their season-opener against Royal Challengers Bangalore by four wickets. Asked to bat under cloudy skies, Royal Challengers posted an above-par total thanks to Brendon McCullum (43) and AB de Villiers (44), but Narine’s early blitz neutralised both those knocks and the middle-order built on his start to steer Knight Riders home with seven balls to spare.
RCB could have made much more than their eventual total of 176 for 7, especially after being positioned at 127 for 2 after 14.1 overs, but a one-over special from part-time offspinner Rana, who took out de Villiers and Virat Kohli with consecutive balls, swung the momentum Knight Riders’ way.
After Narine fell for 50 in the sixth over, the hosts wobbled slightly as Umesh Yadav – a former Knight Rider himself – took two wickets in two overs, but Dinesh Karthik (35*), Rana (34) and Andre Russell (15) took the home side to victory without too many undue alarms.
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Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo