The 36th match of the IPL 2024 was played at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata between Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday, April 21. It was a crucial encounter for RCB to stay in the race for playoffs, while KKR was hurting from their defeat to RR in the previous match.
RCB captain Faf du Plessis had won the toss and chose to bowl first in Eden Gardens.
Phil Salt got KKR off to an excellent start in this innings, smashing 48 off 14 balls, including seven fours and three sixes. Captain Shreyas Iyer hit 50 runs in 36 overs, and Rinku Singh (24), Andre Russell (27*), and Ramandeep Singh (24*) helped KKR to 222/6.
In response, after early wickets of Virat Kohli (18) and Faf du Plessis (7), Will Jacks (55 in 32 balls with 5 sixes and 4 fours) and Rajat Patidar (52 in 23 balls with 5 sixes and 3 fours) brought RCB back in the chase with a third wicket partnership of 102 runs.
But Andre Russell dismissed both the batters and though Suyash Prabhudessai (24) and Dinesh Karthik (25) kept RCB in the game, they needed 21 runs to win from the final over.
an unlikely hero emerged as Karn Sharma faced Mitchell Starc in the final over and proceeded to hit 3 sixes in the first four balls to give RCB a brilliant chance of victory.
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But the experienced Starc took an astonishing caught and bowled to send Karn back for 20 runs in 7 balls. With 3 needed off the final ball, Lockie Ferguson was run out going for the second run that would’ve tied the match and taken it to the super over. RCB finished on 221 runs in 20 overs.
KKR managed to win the match by just one run. Player of the Match Andre Russell picked 3/25, while Sunil Narine and HArshit Rana took two wickets each.
As a result, moved back to second place in the IPL 2024 points table with 5 wins and 10 points from 7 games. RCB remains in the 10th spot with 2 points from one win in 8 matches.
The cricket fraternity was out of breath after the nail-biting action between KKR and RCB and shared their reactions on social media.
Here are the posts:
