Andre Russell played his best stroke of 48 runs just off 13 balls to help Kolkata Knight Riders crush Royal Challengers Bangalore by five wickets in Bengaluru. The win made KKR climb to the second position on the points table with three wins out of four matches. RCB, on the other hand, suffered their fifth successive loss in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019.
Andre Russell hit seven sixes and a boundary, while Shubman Gill scored the winning runs for KKR. Needing 66 runs off 24 balls, KKR were out until Russell came in and smashed an unbeaten 48 to complete the job. Russell’s fiery innings came after Virat Kohli smashed 84 off 49 and South African, AB de Villiers picked 63 off 32. The duo put a delightful 108 run partnership to take RCB to 205 for three when asked to bat first.
KKR won three out of their four games while RCB are have lost five in a row and are heading towards another bad season.
Opener Chris Lynn got 43 off 31, while Robbie Uthappa hit 33 runs and Nitish Rana gathered 37 off 23 balls before Russell singlehandedly got the job done. RCB spinners Pawan Negi and Yuzvendra Chahal bowled well with figures 2/21 and 1/24 respectively. They tried putting brakes on the KKR run rate.
Earlier, when Kohli and de Villiers were batting together, they hammered the bowlers to entertain the stands. At one stage, it seemed RCB could get close to 250 but KKR did well to control the innings after taking Kohli. After ABD and skipper Kohli were gone, Marcus Stoinis belted 18 runs off Prasidh pushing the total past 200 mark.
Owner of KKR, Shah Rukh Khan took to twitter to compare Andre Russell to Indian movie character Bahubali.
Well played boys @KKRiders @lynny50 @NitishRana_27 @robbieuthappa . Each one in the team did so well but you all will agree all words of praise r worth less than this picture… pic.twitter.com/bak2zQ9NqD
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) April 5, 2019