Big win for KKR tonight and they are now 2-0 in this IPL 2024 season. It is also the first win for an away team, so plenty of other sides will be pleased with how this result panned out. See you tomorrow for more IPL cricket. Till then, on behalf of everyone at ESPNcricinfo, bye bye!
Jai Kedia: "I want to credit y'all over at Cricinfo for the excellent "MVP" tool you've built. It's very difficult to convert traditional cricket stats into match impact in T20s but you have done a sensational job. Harshit Rana today is an example. On the surface his stats don't impress but he played a crucial role in KKR's win."
11.05pm On his 500th appearance in T20s, it is Sunil Narine who is the Player of the Match for his overs and batting blitz. Here he is: "(500th T20 match) It is a nice milestone. Hopefully there are 500 more to come. Great to perform like this. Relief also to get it after a while. (Batting success today) Just self belief and support staff giving encouragement. Little bit of hard work and it is helping. (Bowling, how he pulled things back) Powerplay is always the hardest over to bowl so you have to forget that. When you come back later, you have to capitalise and pull things back. (KKR camp) It helps when you win. Self belief and confidence is coming from the support staff."
10.57pm We'll have the presentation shortly. And here's the winning captain Shreyas Iyer: "(rest between games) Absolutely. Coming here, we were in good shape between games. Coming here and hitting few balls made us feel comfortable. (Bowling innings) Russell showed slower ones are good here and the way he executed them were easy to see. From there on, rest of the bowlers picked up on that and made that their plans. Communication was brilliant. (Narine as opener) See Narine when he comes in, he has one job that is to clear the outfield and get maximum runs. Today was a phenomenal example. We were contemplating today whether to open with him or not, but this was great. (Nature of surface between innings) From one end, it was pretty good to bat on. From the other end, it was two-paced. It was bouncing extra. That was the communication we were having and passing it on to the batter coming next. (Break between now and next game in Visakhapatnam) We are spending a day here tomorrow and then going to Vizag. Have to see the nature of the pitch there. (Only one playoffs last four seasons - what expectations?) Not expecting much. Season has just started and we have just two wins so far. We need to embrace this and enjoy each others' successes."
Humaid Salman : "Only off-pace bowlers can succeed at Chinnaswamy. Fizz would have been a good buy but RCB never learn from mistakes. Bowlers like Starc also goes for runs here.I would definitely retain Vyshak before Siraj"
Venkatesh Iyer, who hit a fifty: "Let's see how my back is. Will know after a scan. The ball was coming on really well in the evening. Credit goes to Sunil Narine whose runs took the pressure off us. We just had to finish formalities. (Venkatesh's mindset) With a platform like that, you have to maximise. With a left-hand spinner bowling, I walked in in front of Angkrish, so I knew I had to take 'em on. Also my fiance was here today so it was a special day. (Facing Vyshak) Pace-off in totality was tough but if fast bowlers bowled pace-on, it was easy to take them to the cleaners. Happened with us in our bowling innings too."
Bruce Wayne: "Any one who played more than 6 deliveries in this match had a higher SR than Kohli - and that is the reason RCB lost - not ground or dimensions or pitch. If Rizwan or KL Rahul or Steve Smith or Williamson etc played this innings - that would be the only conversation point."
Hari: "Gambhir comes in - asks Narine to open, picked Salt and plays him over Gurbaz (who was benched by DC last season), doesn't care to sub Varun, injects aggression to bowling department (especially Harshit). Championship mindset!"
10.48pm Losing captain du Plessis: It was two-paced in the first innings but the pitch became better in the chase. It was not easy batting in the first innings, and you could see that with Virat also struggling a little. (Looking back) We could've tried one or two things, but the way Salt-Narine batted, they pretty much took the game away. They were excellent and broke the game in the first six overs. (Did you miss spin options?) We've tried Maxwell and fingerspinners are effective here but today there wasn't much spin. And with them having a left-right combination, spinners can find it tricky. We needed a wristspinner who could turn it both ways. (Vyshak) Very good. He hasn't had a lot of opportunity. We thought of getting legspinner Karn as an Impact Sub but brought him in for his cutters. We saw Dre Russ bowled 80% of his balls as cutters, so knew that would work. Good mix-ups from Vyshak, in terms of skillset.
10.45pm And an away team finally wins a game in IPL 2024. This game turned out to be a non-contest with KKR cruising to victory with 3.1 overs remaining. Every batter who turned up in purple and gold had a field day out today on a batting-friendly surface, and this par target was razed down easily.
KKR fans would once again love to see Narine get among the runs, who nearly got a fifty in his 500th T20 appearance. Salt, the two Iyers and an unbeaten Rinku ensured all their boxes were ticked as a batting side.
For RCB, only Vyshak's spell was promising. Otherwise, they all went for runs, even the spearheads Siraj and Alzarri Joseph. The only question that remains is whether they lost the match with the ball or with the bat when they scored only 182. We'll know more about what they think when we hear from Faf du Plessis.
Naman: "Is it just me or did Kohli never even honestly tried to stop that ball from touching the boundary on 15.5 ?" -- I was surprised too. My own knees creaked seeing Kohli not bend down to stop that four
Krishna : "Replying to a comment by @chiru: Not their home ground, no. They need smarter bowlers. I know we don't face the pressure they do, but any bystander can read patterns on the pitch. RCB's bowlers don't even try."
Adarsh: "RCB's bowling has always been the cause of their downfall. Not holding on to Chahal and Harshal Patel will look even more baffling by this season's end."
Dagar again.
