Mumbai : Royal Challengers Bangalore defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 3 wickets to secure their first points in the new season. Wanindu Hasaranga was the star for RCB with figures of 4 for 20 off his 4 overs as KKR collapsed to 128 all out in 18.5 overs. RCB, in response, got off to a poor start but the lower-order did enough to get them to victory.
Wanindu Hasaranga, Man of the Match, said, ‘ Crucial situation, I got only four and got out. I am really happy. Specially with the dew it is very hard to bowl. My favorite footballer is Neymar and that is his celebration which I do. When I go play, I don’t take any pressure. That’s why I feel I got success.’
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis, said, ‘Very happy. Close small margins game are very important at the start. Small score, we just tried to be positive but very good bowling from their seamers. The ball swung a little more earlier but today there was seam and bounce. Two three days ago, it was 200 and today it was 130. We would like to be more convincing. Just the experience. The runs were never a problem. We just needed to have wickets in hand. DK is as close as it gets to MS Dhoni when it comes to being ice cool. I rely on other people for help. We have great people in the camp. There is good communication in the group. The guys have been great. They have been supportive. They are coming to me with ideas.’
KKR captain Shreyas Iyer said, ‘I really found this game exciting. Before getting in, I spoke with my boys and told them that this game is going to define our character and attitude on the field no matter we defend or not. The way we fight it on the ground, that is really going to reflect our mentality in the next few games. I am really proud the way we played this game and took it till the last over. It was really tough at that moment because I wanted to get my best bowlers up there and get a few wickets early on but it didn’t work out really well. Kudos to their batsmen, they played really well out in the middle. They took out the toughest phase as soon as possible. In the end, I decided to go with Venky because he’s also got really good experience bowling at international level and you need to back them especially at the start of the tournament. It’s really important they gain confidence as early as as possible and this was one of the best games to get that’
‘The wicket was looking a bit dicey at the start, it was two-paced, variable and the bounce was odd. We wanted to get off to a really good start and that’s what we planned. The execution part was tough. We are going to come back with the same mindset, we are not going to chicken out. That’s what we want to focus on and that’s what we spoke about coming into the tournament that we’ll be someone who’d be taking risks. Next time when we come, we need to rectify the errors and see to it that we get the momentum as early as possible. He (Wanindu Hasaranga) bowled really well, he got off to a good start after getting my wicket. I was able to read him pretty well at the start. We had decided that we’ll play him as an off-spinner but unfortunately he bowled really good lines and lengths. He’s also very experienced and he was getting some help on this wicket. Congratulations to him.’