Andre Russell's 13-ball 48 runs gives Kolkata Knight Riders five-wicket win over Bangalore

Andre Russell produced fourth consecutive devastating innings, clubbing a monstrous13-ball 48 as Kolkata Knight Riders chased a mammoth total with five balls to spare. Chasing 206, Knight Riders needed 66 off 24 at one point, and then 53 off 18 with Russell having faced two balls. From there, Royal Challengers used four bowlers - Mohammed Siraj was suspended halfway through the 18th for a second beamer - all of whom were hammered all around the ground by dre Russ who made the chase look like a cakewalk at M. Chinnaswamy, Bengaluru.

Put into bat by Dinesh Karthik, Royal Challenger Bangalore’s skipper Virat Kohli dispatched Prasidh Krishna for two boundaries in the first over of the innings and from there on he never looked back. A familiar Virat Kohli was at a display for the Chinnaswamy crowd as he creamed boundaries off the Kolkata bowlers.

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By the time Kohli was dismissed, he had accumulated 84 runs off 49 deliveries and Bangalore was placed handsomely at 172/2. During his innings, he hit nine fours and two sixes and scored at a strike rate of 171.43. He was part of a 108-run partnership with South African AB de Villiers for the second wicket. This was Kohli's first fifty of the season.

Once Kohli departed, the onus was on AB de Villiers and Marcus Stoinis to finish the innings on high. In the process, the former got out but latter went onto smash 28 runs off 13 deliveries which eventually led Royal Challengers Bangalore to finish with 205 runs on the board.

In response, Sunil Narine started off with smashing two boundaries up front but was trapped by Navdeep Saini. Once the swashbuckler departed, Chris Lynn and Robin Uthappa ticked the ball all around the ground to put up 75 runs together.

Just when Uthappa and Lynn were taking the game away from Royal Challengers Bangalore, Virat Kohli introduced Pawan Negi into the attack, who struck two wickets in two consecutive overs to keep RCB in the hunt to win their first game of the season.

However, Andre Russell had different plans and scored 29 off the 19th over, Shubman Gill takes the final run needed to win in the first ball of the final over by Negi. Kolkata finally wins the game by 5 wickets. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Kolkata Knight Riders jump to the second spot in the points table. 
• Andre Russell was awarded as the man-of-the-match. 
• Virat Kohli became the highest run scorer in IPL.