IPL 2021: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Stats Review

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) restarted IPL 2021 with an emphatic nine-wicket victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

After winning just two games in the IPL 2021 first leg in India, on Monday, KKR ticked all the areas as they stunned Virat Kohli and his men. Kohli won the toss and opted to bat first but the RCB batters failed to back his decision.

KKR won by nine wickets in 10 overs in their opening fixture of IPL 2021 2nd Leg

RCB were 41/2 at the end of the powerplay with both the openers Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal back in the dugout. West Indies all-rounder Andre Russell (3/9) and leg-spinner Varun Chakravarthy (3/13) bowled brilliantly to fold up RCB’s innings at 92 in 19 overs in match 31 of IPL 2021.

KKR openers Shubman Gill (48) and debutant Venkatesh Iyer (41*) steered the chase in 10 overs with excellent shots. Gill was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal when KKR were 10 runs away from the win.

KKR’s victory helped them to climb to the fifth spot fin the IPL 2021 points table from seventh with a net run rate of +0.110.

IPL 2021: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore Stats Review

• This was RCB skipper Virat Kohli’s 200th IPL match and so was it for KKR. Interestingly Kohli made his IPL debut against KKR in 2008, which was the first match of the tournament’s history.
• The last time these two teams faced each other in Abu Dhabi, RCB restricted KKR to 84/8 in 20 overs and chased down the target with 8 wickets and 39 balls to spare.
• This is the largest victory for KKR in IPL history by balls remaining – 60. Their previous two wins were against Rajasthan Royals where they were left with 37 balls on both occasions in 2011 and 2019.

• This was also the first time that RCB lost with ten or more overs to spare while defending a total. Their previous biggest defeat was against Rajasthan Royals in 2014, when they chased down 71 with seven overs to spare in Abu Dhabi.
• KKR finally ended their four-match losing streak against RCB. The last time they had won against Kohli’s team was back in April 2019 in Bangalore.
• Sixth successive defeat for RCB in UAE and their last win came against KKR at the same venue when they restricted them to 84/8 in 20 overs and chased it down in 13.3 overs.

• This was the sixth time RCB got bowled out under 100 in IPL, the second most for any team in the league. Delhi Capitals (earlier Delhi Daredevils) top the list with ten such totals. Three of RCB’s sub-100 totals have come against the Knight Riders, including the lowest IPL total ever – 49 all out in 2017.

49 v KKR Kolkata 2017
70 v RR Abu Dhabi 2014
70 v CSK Chennai 2019
82 v KKR Bengaluru 2008
87 v CSK Port Elizabeth 2009
92 v KKR Abu Dhabi 2021 *

• RCB batsmen failed to hit a single six in their innings and it is only the second instance in IPL where they haven’t smashed a six in a completed inning. The other occasion was in 2017, also against the Knight Riders, when they were bowled out for 49.
• This was AB de Villiers’ 10th duck in IPL and for the sixth time, he was dismissed for a golden duck.

List of bowlers to sent AB de Villiers for a golden duck.

Albie Morkel
Sudip Tyagi
Jacques Kallis
Kane Richardson
Moises Henriques
Andre Russell*

Also Read: IPL 2021: Bit Of A Wake-Up Call – RCB Captain Virat Kohli On Loss To KKR