Sunil Gavaskar Slams Virat Kohli For RCB’s Poor Show In IPL 2017

Kings XI Punjab kept their hopes for a knockout spot alive with a 19-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL-10 match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Friday evening.

Vohra played a slog-sweep off Negi effectively, hitting him for a six before trying to repeat the same shot off Yuzvendra Chahal (2 for 21 in 4 overs).

Sreenath Aravind (1-0-26-0) and Samuel Badree (3-0-40-0) bore the brunt of the fury from Narine and Lynn. Gayle, to his credit, has 5 centuries in IPL and also the highest individual score, of 175 not out. Virat Kohli’s rock-bottom team have been bowled out four times this season and have just five points to show for from 12 matches. It was in Samuel Badree’s second over, the fourth of the innings, when he hit three successive sixes and a four to get going.

Narine sent De Villiers (10; 8b 2×4 0x6) back in his first over with the out of form South African shuffling across the crease to miss the ball completely and losing his stumps as a result.

The win has helped Punjab maintain their position at fifth while this is the ninth loss for Bangalore this season from 11 games.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (C), Darren Bravo, Yusuf Pathan, Sunil Narine, Robin Uthappa (WK), Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Ankit Rajpoot, Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla, Nathan Coulter Nile, Colin De Grandhomme, Rishi Dhawan, Sayan Ghosh, Shaikb Al Hasan, Sheldon Jackson, Ishank Jaggi, Kuldeep Yadav, Chris Woakes, Chris Lynn, Manish Pandey. Sport is a confidence thing; the RCB players will want to get back to winning ways so they feel better and also give their loyal fans a reason to cheer.

Royal Challengers could not recover after seamer Sandeep Sharma (3-22) struck three times in his first three overs and were dismissed for 119 in 19 overs after Kings XI had posted 138-7. Having won their last game by bowling out the Daredevils for just 67, Maxwell’s unit will start as favourite to add to the hosts’ woes.

Umesh Yadav gave the visiting side a flawless start to the match by scalping the big wicket of Gayle and he returned for his second over to provide the moment of the match for the Knight Riders. “Our preparations have been similar to what we did previous year, but what matters is what you do on the field and this season has been against what we’ve wanted”, he further added. The change of pace by Yadav caught Kohli off guard and was a bit too early with his attempted flick.

Mandeep Singh (52) and Travis Head would pull them out of what looked to be another disastrous nosedive though.