Virat Kohli's decision to send KKR in to bat seem to have backfired when KKR managed to post 177 after a brilliant start provided by Uthappa and skipper Gambhir, who scored his second successive fifty and a breezy 41 by Andre Russell. But Chris Gayle had other intentions as he single handedly lead RCB to make a winning start to their IPL season.
RCB missing their premier bowler in Mitchell Starc, who is out for two weeks with a knee injury, opted for Sean Abbott as their leading paceman. He had a terrible start thanks to the RCB fielders, who had a horror day in the field.Two boundaries were scored in place of singles and an overthrow to make things worse.In fact even AB De Villiers dropped a sitter.The pace trio of Abbott,Varun Aaron and H Patel were guilty of bowling too short and paid the price.Y Chahal and Abu Nechim's shrewd bowling helped pull back things a little, but Russell's late onslaught helped KKR to what looked like a winning score.
Kohli came in to open with Gayle as RCB set about chasing the stiff target. But things didn't go as planned as Kohli was dismissed cheaply, followed by Dinesh Karthick and Mandeep Singh who were out bowled in the same over by surprise change Yusuf Pathan. With Gayle making a subdued start, it was AB De Villiers who came in and started hitting right away as RCB looked to get close to the required rate. But the Proteas was a bit too adventurous in trying to clobber debutant spinner Cariappa and was out stumped by Uthappa.Just when things were looking bleak for the Royal Challengers, Gayle, who was earlier with the Kolkata franchisee, took on the mantle and returned to his destructive best. He clobbered Narine and Pathan and even Mornie Morkel, who went from KKR hero in the last match to zero as he dropped an easy catch of Gayle. Gayle was eventually run out 7 runs from victory after a brilliant fielding effort by Manish Pandey, but he had done the hard work and H Patel and Abu Nechim managed to steer them home.
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