Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, 3rd Match

RCB 176/7 (20.0 Ovs)

KKR 177/6 (18.5 Ovs)

Kolkata Knight Riders won by 4 wkts

PLAYER OF THE MATCH
Sunil Narine

Not quite the double-header you might have expected, but hey who's complaining? KL Rahul slammed the fastest ever IPL fifty earlier in the day whilst Narine tonked it to all corners, to record his second fastest T20 fifty. And both grabbing the Man of the Match awards too. Tells you where the format is headed. 'Opening batsman' is the most fancy profession right now. So, get a willow and clatter the hell out of leather. We will see you next tomorrow for the clash between Sunrisers and Royals. Until then, this is Raju Peethala bidding adios on behalf of Sagar Chawla, Ramakrishnan, Nikhil Jadhav, Rishi Roy and Sreenivas. Cheers!!

Here's Shirshendu Roy decoding motivational speaker Mike Horn's wizardry to put the Knight Riders in a good mental space before the IPL.

Most wins against RCB in IPL:
13 by MI (21 matches)
12 by KXIP (20 matches)
12 by CSK (20 matches)
12 by KKR (21 matches)*

Most wins for KKR against an opponent in IPL:
14 vs KXIP (21 matches)
12 vs DD (19 matches)
12 vs RCB (21 matches)*

Sunil Narine, Man of the Match: It's good to get the ball rolling in the first game. The support staff and everyone gave me a chance to open the batting again. I wouldn't see myself as an opening batsman, but whatever the team requires of me I'm happy to do, whether it's up the order or down the order. Whatever role the team wants me to play, I'm happy to do it. If I get out first ball, that's okay, that (the attacking style of play) puts a lot more pressure on the fielding team and less on me. It's (the pitch) not as it was before, but it's a good cricket wicket, whatever you do on the field, it's gonna benefit you.

DK: Feels very good. Good to get off to a good start, everybody needs it and I'm no different. I just felt at that point [during the powerplay] of time it was coming out too well for the fast bowlers, so I thought I will try wrist spin and bring little bit of risk so that it will take a little bit of time for them to play the shots. When AB and Virat were playing it was tough, they were too good and they are two great players. Just wished for their wickets after they got starts and we got lucky I guess. We just prayed to God that he [Narine] plays a few balls - I mean he has been doing that pretty well. It's very important that he gets us off to a good start. We all play for the crowd and they came in big numbers. We would love to play for a team like this and a crowd like this.

Virat Kohli: I think we were 15 short with the bat. I played too many dot balls and couldn't get any momentum going. Me and AB getting out in 2 balls to a part-timer was a game-changing event. Sunil took the game away from us with the way he batted. If you are giving 13 an over in the first overs on that sort of a wicket, it's very difficult to comeback. It's difficult for the spinners to bowl on this pitch, the fast bowlers get some purchase and you can score runs as well. It has become a really good cricket wicket over the last couple of years. We made a pretty good game out of it, to drag it till the 19th over and take those wickets was a big positive.

Agni says: Both the matches finished at 18.5 overs today

GB says: RCB bowling didn't look as ominous as Kohli was expecting... usual story?

3:41 Local Time, 18:11 GMT, 23:41 IST: AB was spot on when he said (during the onfield interview) that RCB were good 20-30 runs short with the bat. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the game, right there! Imagine if KKR had 20 more to chase, and imagine if Umesh Yadav had one more over. Can assume all sorts of permutations and combinations, but it's always good to reflect on what went wrong in hindsight. Narine, with his lesser-known skill, provided the perfect platform [a 17-ball 50] in the powerplay overs and that allowed KKR and the rest of the batters to sit back and pick their moments/bowlers for the rest of the game. And when you have the luxury of Russell batting at 7, runs required would be a lesser parameter to worry about. DK anchored it neatly towards the end, offering Nitish Rana and Russell the much-needed freedom to go after their shots.