In his RCB debut, Phil Salt was outstanding, scoring 56 off 31 balls to help the team chase down KKR’s 174/8. With seven wickets remaining, the RCB won, and Virat Kohli was still undefeated at 59. Krunal Panday was outstanding; he stopped KKR’s momentum throughout their innings by getting three wickets.
Kolkata: Phil Salt can accomplish anything, regardless of whether he is playing for KKR or RCB. The former KKR opener struck a 31-ball 56 (94, 62) against his old side to ease into his new role as Virat Kohli’s opening partner at RCB. With seven wickets and 22 balls remaining, RCB, chasing 175, ended the IPL season in spectacular fashion on Saturday night at Eden Gardens with to Kohli’s 36-ball 59 not out.
In essence, Quinton de Kock was unable to do what Salt accomplished. De Kock, the opener, was dismissed off the fifth ball of the game, giving the Knight Riders an early shock. The power-packed batting unit failed to produce against the spinners, especially Krunal Pandya (3/29 off his four overs), while the purple brigade’s new captain Ajinkya Rahane and Sunil Narine steadied the innings with a 103-run second-wicket stand. RCB captain Rajat Patidar put them in after winning the toss, and they eventually put up 174/8.
However, Salt started imposing conditions that went against his previous side from the very first word. Vaibhav Arora, who replaced Angkrish Raghuvanshi as a “Impact Player,” was completely destroyed by the opener, who hammered him for two fours and one six in the third over. Varun Chakravarthy, Rahane’s mainstay, had to be brought in early, but the Englishman scored 21 runs with three fours and one six in the mystery spinner’s opening over.
Then, as RCB amassed 80 runs in the first six overs to set the tone, Virat Kohli lit the crowded Eden stands on fire with a series of magnificent sixes over the head of left-arm bowler Spencer Johnson in the very next over. At last, Chakravarthy got Salt, who had scored a solid 56 off 31 balls, caught by Johnson at short third man.
Chasemaster Kohli, however, reached his fifty in thirty balls and was unstoppable. With four fours and three sixes, Kohli remained undefeated, and Patidar had a cameo of 16 balls and 34 runs. Liam Livingstone ended by hitting Johnson with a boundary.
Earlier, Pandya, for whom RCB particularly bid at the auction, delivered as the left-arm spinner bowled stump to stump to put a stop to the KKR innings in the middle overs. In addition to stopping the runs from his end, he clean bowled Rinku Singh (12) and Venkatesh Iyer (6).
When Andre Russell missed a slog, the ball came in sharply to uproot his stumps, and an expensive Suyash Sharma took the valuable wicket to close the match on a high note. After losing five wickets for 43 runs, KKR lost steam.
