Ramandeep Singh. (Photo Source: Twitter)
After a brilliant start to the innings against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at Eden Gardens, KKR batters struggled to get going in the middle overs. Shreyas Iyer proved to be the lone wolf as other batters failed to support him in the middle.
Iyer’s strike rate was a major issue as well and at one point, it was believed that the Knight Riders may fail to cross the 200-run mark. However, Ramandeep Singh played a brilliant cameo of 24 runs off just nine balls, to help the hosts post 223 runs in the first innings, which proved to be just enough for the two-time champions.
After the first innings, Ramandeep thanked KKR assistant coach Abhishek Nayar for his contribution to grooming him into a better batter. The all-rounder added that his plan was to whack the ball right from the beginning and was happy to play a vital cameo for the team.
“I just wanted to whack the ball, luckily it was my day. Slow bumpers were not easy to hit, that’s what we will do. All credit to Abhishek Nayar, he prepares us this way and all our net sessions resembles a match,” Ramandeep said after the first innings.
KKR defeated RCB by one run
The second innings of the match was full of drama. It started with Virat Kohli’s dismissal as the likes of Navjot Singh Sidhu and Mohammad Kaif believed it was a no-ball while the umpires ruled that out. Despite losing the wicket of Virat early, RCB were in the contest for the majority of the time as Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar played some brilliant cricket in the middle. They hit 55 and 52 runs respectively and after their dismissal, Dinesh Karthik and Karn Sharma took care of the business.
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The duo played well, especially Karn, who hit three sixes in the final over against Mitchell Starc but couldn’t get the job done. With that, RCB lost their seventh match of the season and are at the bottom of the points table.