IPL 2018: KKR vs RCB, Player Ratings
The inaugural IPL match started with the RCB-KKR clash, and it's been 10 years and the same teams have met again in Kolkata. Virat Kohli and Mccullum have been the two constants in the fixtures which are a decade apart. McCullum gave a blazing start to the tournament with his 158 runs for KKR in 2008, but he played against the Knight Riders this time around. Kohli has evolved from being the U-19 Indian team to the Indian Cricket Team captain.
RCB returned to the Eden Gardens for the first time after recording the lowest score(49) in IPL during their last visit. This time, they hoped for a better performance after buying all the KKR bowlers who caused the collapse. Even after the 10 years, it was still KKR that has won the opening match between KKR and RCB.
Here are the player ratings of the players from RCB and KKR:
RCB Player Ratings
Brendon McCullum
Batting: 43(27)
PR: 8/10
Baz provided the perfect start for RCB scoring 16 runs off the first and held the innings together during the power play and helped RCB score 52 runs in the powerplay overs of which he contributed 33.
Quinton de Kock
Batting: 4(4)
PR: 4/10
Quinton de Kock gifted away his wicket in the second over trying a fancy reverse sweep, which he completely mistimed and the top edge led to a soft dismissal.
Virat Kohli
Batting: 31(33)
PR: 6/10
Kohli tried to stabilize the innings and mostly played the role of a supporter with Baz and ABD being the aggressors. Just when he started changing the gears, he was bowled by the part-time off-spinner with a seam-up yorker delivery.
AB de Villiers
Batting: 44(23)
PR:8.5/10
ABD transformed the innings which was going slow at a blazing pace. But the pace reduced considerably after his dismissal. His wicket along with Kohli's would have cost RCB around 15-20 runs, which could have a difference in such a close contest.
Sarfaraz Khan
Batting: 6(10)
PR: 3/10
Sarfaraz never looked settled and was finding it hard to hit boundaries. In his attempt to score some boundaries, he lost his wicket off the first ball of the penultimate over.
Mandeep Singh
Batting: 37(18) PR: 8/10
If not for his innings RCB would have made a score around 160. Thanks to him and his good hitting, RCB reached a respectable total of 176.
Chris Woakes
Batting: 5(5)
Bowling: 4-0-36-3
PR: 7/10
Chris Woakes is back playing against his old team. He had three scalps but could not a better situation for RCB as he also fell victim to the bludgeoning of Sunil Narine.
Washington Sundar
Bowling: 4-0-48-1
PR:4/10
After decent outings for India in the Nidahas Trophy, Washington was expected to be the perfect powerplay bowler controlling the flow of runs. But today wasn't his day, as Sunil Narine and Robin Uthappa took a particular liking towards his bowling and hit him for boundaries.
Kulwant Khejroliya
Bowling: 3.5-0-34-0
PR: 5/10
Kulwant Khejroliya could not create much impact in the game and conceded at almost nine runs per over, making the job easy for the KKR batsmen.
Umesh Yadav
Bowling: 4-0-27-2
PR: 8/10
Umesh Yadav has turned the game around and raised the hope in the hearts the of RCB fans with the dismissals of Robin Uthappa and Sunil Narine. He was the only bowler in the RCB lineup to concede below 7, everyone else had economy rates above 9. If it wasn't for the 15 runs conceded by him in his last over, his bowling figures would have been much better.
Yuzvendra Chahal
Bowling: 3-0-29-0
PR: 4/10
Virat Kohli's trump card and the key bowler to take wickets could not take any in this innings. He was taken aback by the attack of Sunil Narine in the first over itself. Later it was DK who scored two consecutive boundaries of his bowling. He was under-bowled today and was going to bowl the 20th over if the need arises.