Narine and Venkatesh help KKR beat home teams

Kolkata Knight Riders 186 for 3 (Venkatesh 50, Narine 47) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 182 for 6 (Kohli 83*, Russell 2-29, Rana 2-39) by seven wickets

In the IPL 2024, it took ten games for the opposing side to win. It was expected that the match would take place in the M Chinnaswamy Stadium because of the short pitch, which works to the chasing team's advantage. That was on Friday when the Kolkata Knight Riders triumphed against a masterpiece from Virat Kohli to chase down 183 and take the two points.

In the 500th game, Narine shines.

In recent years, there have been issues with KKR's opening partnership. However, they emerged victorious in this game. In addition to the field limitations, they had to reach a large portion of their objective inside the first six overs since that is when the ball is fresh and hard and hits the bat. As it became softer and older, getting into the wicket and taking speed off proved very beneficial, as seen by RCB's innings so far. Andre Russell and Harshit Rana showcased their skills with impressive bowling figures of 2-29 and 2-39 respectively.

Regardless of the venue, the KKR team sticks to their game plan, utilising Sunil Narine at the top of the order. This strategy allows him the freedom to deliver quickfire cameos, often scoring 30 runs off just 10 balls. His performance on his 500th T20 was truly impressive, as he made 47 off 22, showcasing his exceptional skills. Phil Salt made quite an impact as well. It was touch and go whether he would make it to this IPL. After the powerplay, KKR had a solid start with a score of 85 for 0. They had made significant progress towards their target, achieving almost half of it in a relatively short amount of time, while managing to keep all of their wickets intact.

Venkatesh Iyer raised a half-century on that platform, and Shreyas Iyer made sure he stayed there till the very end, which arrived as early as the 17th over. It exposed RCB's imbalanced lineup of young bowlers and elite hitters. Yash Dayal (11.5) was the most economical of their three regular bowlers.

Kohli going big

He declared, "I've still got it," but then realised he needed to tone it down a little bit since he was being seen by millions of people. "I suppose."

After RCB's last match, Virat Kohli's statement about having nothing to prove hints at discussions surrounding his performance in T20 cricket.

Generally speaking, outside chatter doesn't bother cricket players. That's background noise, and despite how difficult it is, people live their whole lives ignoring it.

According to Kohli, there seems to be some inside feedback from the Indian squad on how they want him to conduct himself. His performance in this IPL has shown a shift in his style of play. This IPL has evolved into somewhat of a showcase for players vying to qualify for the T20 World Cup in June.

A limited-overs run machine who sets out to play the whole innings, a hitherto risk-averse batsman is now prepared to accept a lower price for his wicket. And he's been hitting the ball in the air much more often than he used to do it. This is based on information gathered starting with the 2014 season. It truly paints a vivid picture.

Kohli's ability to hit pace is truly remarkable, rivalling the best in world cricket. With three fours and two sixes, he tormented Mitchell Starc for 33 in only 17 deliveries. It became clear that he was displaying the same level of intent while facing slow bowlers. After hitting Narine for only one six in 106 deliveries throughout the whole IPL, on Friday, Kohli struck the mystery spinner out of the Chinnaswamy with the sixth delivery. During this intense competition, he surpassed Chris Gayle's record of 239 sixes to become RCB's leading six-hitter with a total of 241.

The Chinnaswamy disadvantage

During the post-match presentation, Faf du Plessis said that while the RCB attempted to apply the lesson they had learned from the first innings—namely, that slower balls were staying on the surface—they were hindered by the dew that had settled in. The leading scorer for KKR, Venkatesh, said that batting became simpler, at least from one end. How simple is it?

Both RCB and KKR bowled a comparable amount of slower balls—21 and 22—but it nevertheless cost RCB 13.42 an over while KKR managed to get away with an economy rate of 5.45. This information is based on ball-by-ball statistics provided by ESPNcricinfo. Russell was especially difficult to strike since he could run anywhere from 150 kph to just 110 kph. Where's an opposition meant to go when he performs the Narine job and Narine does the Russell job? The KKR team is showing great potential this season.