Kolkata beats Bangalore to keep top-4 push alive in IPL

BENGALURU, India (AP) — In a must-win game to keep their top-four aspirations alive, Kolkata Knight Riders beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 21 runs in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.

Spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Suyash Sharma combined to take five wickets, as Bangalore was restricted to 179-8 (20 overs) despite Virat Kohli’s half-century.

Jason Roy had earlier scored 56 off 29 balls and skipper Nitish Rana made 48 runs to help Kolkata reach 200-5 (20 overs).

Roy and Narayan Jagadeesan (27) gave Kolkata a quick start as they put on 83 off 56 balls for the first wicket.

The English batsman hit four fours and five sixes to bring up his second straight half-century off 22 balls.

Kolkata went from 83-0 to 88-2, losing both openers in the space of five balls to pacer Vijaykumar Vyshak.

Rana and Venkatesh Iyer (31) then rebuilt the innings with 80 off 44 balls for the third wicket.

Iyer scored 31 off 26 balls, while Rana hit three fours and four sixes to accelerate the innings, despite losing Andre Russell for one. Rana was dropped twice in the space of 14 deliveries.

Finisher Rinku Singh scored 18 not out off 10 balls to help Kolkata breach 200.

In reply, Bangalore lost Faf du Plessis for 17. The South African still wasn’t fit enough to lead the team and came on as the impact player.

Kohli, leading the team for a third straight game, scored his fifth half-century of the season. Overall, he scored 54 off 37 runs with six fours but couldn’t build any substantial partnerships.

Wrist spinner Sharma picked 2-30 in four overs, with du Plessis holing out and then Shahbaz Ahmed out lbw for two.

Then Chakravarthy came on to run through the middle order with 3-27. First, Glenn Maxwell was out caught for five, and then Mahipal Lomror followed as Bangalore was down to 113-4 in 11.3 overs.

The scoring rate was still quite brisk, thanks to Lomror who hit three sixes to score 34 off 18 balls. He put on 55 off 34 balls with Kohli for the fourth wicket.

Kohli fell soon after Lomror’s dismissal, caught at deep midwicket off Russell (2-29) ending Bangalore’s substantial hopes at 115-5 in 12.1 overs.

Dinesh Karthik scored 22 off 18 balls thereafter but couldn’t prevent a third home loss for Bangalore this season.

Kolkata moves up to seventh, while Bangalore stays put at fifth.

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