Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra):Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkata Knight Riders by three wickets to register their first win of the season here at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. Defending a modest 129-run target Kolkata Knight Riders needed some early wickets and Umesh Yadav did exactly that dismissing RCB Opener Anuj Rawat for a duck caught behind to wicket-keeper Sheldon Jackson in the very first over.
Virat Kohli walked into bat and struck Umesh Yadav for two consecutive boundaries. In the next over Tim Southee got the wicket of RCB captain Faf du Plessis caught by Ajinkya Rahane for 4. Umesh who was hit for two boundaries on the trot by Kohli in the previous over made a brilliant come back dismissing the former RCB captain caught behind by keeper Jackson for 12 to leave Bangalore tottering at 17 for 3.
RCB desperately needed a partnership and David Willey and Sherfane Rutherford did exactly that to take the team's total beyond the 50-run mark in the eighth over. Mystery spinner Sunil Narine broke the 45-run partnership dismissing Willey for 18 caught by Nitish Rana as RCB lost their fourth wicket at 62.
Shahbaz Ahmed joined Rutherford and the duo batted sensibly to take the team's total beyond the triple-figure mark in the 16th over. The moment it seemed that Rutherford- Ahmed duo will take the RCB team to victory Varun Chakravarthy struck as keeper Jackson stumped Shahbaz Ahmed for 27 from 20 balls as Bangalore lost their fifth wicket for 101.
Southee was brought back into the attack and the Kiwi pacer gave a double blow to RCB dismissing well set Rutherford for 28 and Wanindu Hasaranga for 4 as Bangalore lost seven wickets for 111 needing 18 more runs to win. At a stage when the match could have gone either way Harshal Patel walked into bat and hit two boundaries in the 19th over as RCB needed 7 runs to win off the last over.
Experienced wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik hit a six and a boundary to wrap up the match in RCB's favour as they beat KKR by three wickets. Earlier in the day Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and put Kolkata Knight Riders to bat. The two-time champions Kolkata started off consciously with openers Ajinkya Rahane and Venkatesh Iyer scoring 14 runs in the first three overs.
RCB captain du Plessis made a bowling change in the fourth over as Akash Deep replaced Mohammed Siraj and the medium-pacer struck in his very first ball for 10 caught and bowled as KKR lost their first wicket for 14. Siraj was brought from the other end in the fifth over and the pacer got the wicket of Rahane caught by Shahbaz Ahmed for 9 to leave Kolkata in a spot of bother at 32 for 2.