On Friday, March 29, Royal Challengers Bengaluru suffered their second defeat of the IPL 2024 season at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
After Virat Kohli amassed an incredible 83 runs in the first innings of the match, the hosts, RCB, managed to score a total of 182 runs in the opening innings of the match. However, the side made it appear extremely simple as KKR closed in to pursue the total.
Phil Salt and Sunil Narine’s barrage, which saw both hitters score quickly (30 and 47 runs, respectively), set the tone for the two-time winners’ opening attack. Additionally, with seven wickets remaining, Venkatesh Iyer scored 50 runs in 30 deliveries and Shreyas Iyer added 39 runs to the tally to aid KKR in chasing the target.
Former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra came up to praise KKR’s chasing abilities against RCB and comment on the team’s performance, expressing his admiration for the team’s amazing batting prowess.
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“The template is very clear when Sunil Narine opens: ‘Either I or you will not remain.'” He plays that way, attempting to hit sixes. In a video posted on his YouTube page, Chopra stated, “Everyone knows that you need to bowl bouncers and yorkers all the time, but if you don’t succeed in that, just like Bengaluru didn’t get in the first six overs, he takes the match far away from your grasp.”
Everyone took a lot of hits. Aakash Chopra
Chopra emphasised that the visitors had reached the 80-run mark in just the first five overs, drawing a comparison between RCB’s batting performance and KKR’s in the second innings.
“Phil Salt was with him as well. In the first over alone, Phil Salt scored eighteen runs. He was quite intelligent. To put things in perspective, Kolkata had already scored 85 in 5.5 overs, and although the other team bowled brilliantly, Kohli had to play 59 balls to reach 83. Everyone was severely impacted, whether it was Yash Dayal, Mohammed Siraj, or Alzarri Joseph, according to Chopra.