Bengaluru: Opener Chris Lynn’s unbeaten 62 and Robin Uthappa’s disciplined innings of 36 helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in an Indian Premier League match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.
The win, coming after two straight losses, took Kolkata to fourth spot with eight points while Bangalore are in seventh spot with four points.
Chasing 176, the visitors got off to a perfect start as Lynn and Sunil Narine (27) forged a 59-run partnership in 7.1 overs before the West Indian departed to M. Ashwin.
New batsman Uthappa and Lynn then played sensibly and punished the bad balls. The duo managed to take Kolkata past the 100-run mark. But just when things seemed good in the middle, Uthappa was dismissed by Ashwin in the 13th over.
New batsman Nitish Rana (15), who was looking good at the crease, was forced to retire hurt.
Middle-order batsmen Andre Russel (0) and Dinesh Karthik (23) were also sent packing but at that time Lynn had already put his team on the front foot and went on to complete proceedings in the last over with Shubman Gill (5 not out).
For Bangalore, M. Ashwin and Mohammad Siraj took two wickets each.
Earlier, a good opening stand followed by skipper Virat Kohli’s unbeaten half-century helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to post 175/4.
Kohli’s unbeaten 68-run knock came off 44 balls, containing five boundaries and three sixes.
Put into bat, Bangalore started on a cautious note as openers Quinton de Kock (29 off 27) and Brendon McCullum (38 off 28) shared a 67-run partnership for the first wicket.
KKR spinner Kuldeep Yadav came up with the first breakthrough as he packed off De Kock in the ninth over.
With the addition of just seven runs in Bangalore’s overall score of 67, Russel jolted the hosts after dismissing McCullum and Manan Vohra (0) in the next over.
However, Kohli kept one end tight and added 65 runs for the fourth wicket with Mandeep Singh (19).
Mandeep however, didn’t show enough fight and was dismissed on a Russel delivery in the 18th over with Bangalore’s score reading 140/4.
Kohli continued his good work and slammed yet another half-century. Some fireworks by him in the final moments helped the hosts reach a respectable total of 175/4.
For Kolkata, Russel was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/31 while Kuldeep took one wicket for 20 runs.
