IPL 2018, KXIP vs RCB: Hits and Misses
It was a must-win game for Royal Challengers Bangalore and they came out and put up a clinical performance in Indore against Kings XI Punjab.
Put into bat by Virat Kohli, KXIP were off to a sedate start as RCB's new-ball bowlers were tight and disciplined in the initial few overs. And just when KL Rahul and Chris Gayle started to open their shoulders and threaten to take the game away from RCB, Umesh Yadav bounced both batsmen out.
And since then, Kings XI lost wickets in a heap and were eventually bowled out for a meagre total of 88. After an opening stand of 36, the hosts could only manage to score 52 runs for the next 9 wickets. All the RCB bowlers were very good with Umesh Yadav once again being the standout.
Virat Kohli and Parthiv Patel then came out and dominated the KXIP bowling attack and finished off the chase in just 8.1 overs. This was the first time RCB managed to win two consecutive games since 2016. This was their 5th win of the season and this huge win has helped them better their net run rate.
#5 Miss: Karun Nair
Karun Nair came into this IPL on the back of a very good domestic season. He was consistent in all three formats. He scored 1270 runs (in 28 innings) at an average of 47.03.
However, he hasn’t quite lived up to expectation despite being the third highest run-getter this season. He started the tournament very well as he scored a very good half-century against Delhi Daredevils. But since then he’s looked good but just hasn’t been able to convert his starts. In fact, in his first 8 innings this season, Nair just had one innings where he didn’t cross the 20-run mark.
But in the last couple of games, he failed to even get set. He got 3 and 3 in the last two games and in this game, he registered his third successive single-digit score as he managed to score just 1. He came into bat at No. 3 and with KXIP’s best batsman KL Rahul dismissed, Nair needed to take the responsibility and bat big.
However, the Karnataka batsman tried to guide a ball to third man despite the presence of a slip (which was standing wide) and was out caught.