At Eden Gardens in Kolkata, a quintessential cricket battle unfolded today in IPL 2024 between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The match, filled with suspense and high scores, ended with Bangalore narrowly losing by just one run.
Chasing a hefty target of 223 runs, Bangalore needed 21 runs in the final over. Karn Sharma, facing world-class bowler Mitchell Starc, struck three sixes, causing dismay in the Kolkata camp.
However, needing three runs from the last two balls, Sharma got caught and bowled in his attempt to hit another big shot. On the final ball, with three runs needed to win,
Bangalore’s batsman Lockie Ferguson was run out while attempting the second run, which would have tied the match.
Earlier in the game, RCB won the toss and chose to field first. Kolkata set a challenging total of 222 for 6 in their allotted 20 overs.
In response, RCB managed 221 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their 20 overs, with top scorers failing to make significant contributions; Virat Kohli scored 18 and captain Faf du Plessis made just 7 runs.
Kohli left the field visibly upset over a dismissal controversy, arguing with the umpire over a non-call for a no-ball, which was confirmed not to be a no-ball upon review.
Faf du Plessis also got out for a low score, but the partnership between Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar accelerated Bangalore’s chase. Jacks scored 55 from 32 balls, and Patidar added 52 from 23 balls.
Impact player Suyash Prabhudessai and Dinesh Karthik each scored 25 runs, pushing the team forward.
By the 19th over, RCB was 202 for 8, seemingly out of the contest. However, Karn Sharma showed remarkable batting skills, hitting 20 runs off 7 balls before being caught by Starc.
For Kolkata, Andre Russell took 3 wickets, Harshit Rana got 2, Sunil Narine also took 2, while Mitchell Starc and Varun Chakravarthy claimed one each.
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