RCB survive Russell’s charge

kolkata, April 19 

Royal Challengers Bangalore eked out a 10-run win over  Kolkata Knight Riders for only their second success of the season after Andre Russell and Nitish Rana nearly pulled off the impossible in their IPL match. 

Needing 113 runs off the last six overs, Russell (65 off 25) and Rana (85* off 46) almost got their team over the line but Moeen Ali managed to defend 24 in the final over. The tense climax came after Virat Kohli smashed 100 off 58 balls for his fifth century in the IPL and first this season. RCB hammered 91 runs off the last five overs to reach 213/4, their highest total this year. Ali’s 66 off 28 while batting alongside Kohli also proved crucial for RCB’s cause as they finally managed to defend. Ali smashed six sixes and five fours to seize the momentum. Kohli and Ali shared 90 runs off 43 balls and there was no looking back after Ali’s assault. In the 16th over, Kuldeep Yadav bled 27 runs with Ali smashing the India spinner for three sixes and two boundaries. — PTI

Scoreboard

Royal Challengers Bangalore

                               Runs Balls 4 6

P Patel c Rana b Narine 11 11 2 0
V Kohli c Gill b Gurney 100 58 9 4
A Nath c Uthappa b Russell 13 15 0 1
M Ali c Prasidh Krishna b Kuldeep 66 28 5 6
M Stoinis not out 17 8 2 1
Extras: (lb-1, w-5) 6
Total: (4 wickets; 20 overs) 213
FOW: 1-18, 2-59, 3-149, 4-213 

                  Bowling O M R W

Harry Gurney 4 0 42 1
Sunil Narine 4 0 32 1
M Prasidh Krishna 4 0 52 0
Andre Russell 3 0 17 1
Kuldeep Yadav 4 0 59 1
Piyush Chawla 1 0 10 0

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS

                       Runs Balls 4 6

C Lynn c Kohli b Steyn 1 2 0 0
S Narine c Patel b Saini 18 16 4 0
S Gill c Kohli b Steyn 9 11 1 0
R Uthappa c Negi b Stoinis 9 20 1 0
N Rana not out 85 46 9 5
A Russell run out 65 25 2 9
D Karthik not out 0 0 0 0
Extras: (lb-4, w-12) 16
Total: (5 wickets;20 overs) 203
FOW: 1-6, 2-24, 3-33, 4-79, 5-197 

                         Bowling O M R W

Dale Steyn 4 0 40 2
Navdeep Saini 4 0 31 1
Mohammed Siraj 4 0 38 0
Marcus Stoinis 4 0 32 1
Yuzvendra Chahal 3 0 45 0
Moeen Ali 1 0 13 0
Player of the Match: Virat Kohli

Points table

Team M  W I Pts
Chennai 9 7 2 14
Mumbai 9 6 3 12
Delhi 9 5 4 10
Punjab 9 5 4 10
Hyderabad 8 4 4 8
Kolkata 9 4 5 8
Rajasthan 8 2 6 4
Bangalore 9 2 7 4