M Chinnaswamy stadium was ready to witness an epic clash between the two heavyweights of IPL. The Royal Challengers Bangalore were facing the two-time champs from the east, Kolkata Knight Riders. RCB were desperately looking for a win, against a demoralised KKR who had suffered 2 consecutive defeats and were looking for some redemption.

Gautam Gambhir won the toss and put RCB into bat. Chris Gayle made his way back to the RCB squad after missing a few games. RCB had a pretty ordinary start even after having a star-studded batting line-up. Gayle was dismissed in the second over when he top-edged Morne Morkel after hitting him for a six. Virat Kohli and Lokesh Rahul stabilized the innings with a partnership of 84 from 58 balls. Rahul 52(32) got out soon after completing his half-century when tried to loft Piyush Chawla. Chawla came back the next over to get the all-important wicket off AB de Villiers. RCB kept losing wickets but Kohli held up one end and got yet another 50. KKR bowled poorly in the death overs, especially Umesh Yadav, which let RCB take charge of the innings and plunder 54 runs in the last three overs. The cameos from Shane Watson, Sachin Baby, and Stuart Binny propelled RCB’s total to 185/7.

KKR got off to a disastrous start as they lost Robin Uthappa in the first over. Chris Lynn who came up the order got out to a beauty from Yuzvendra Chahal. Gambhir and Manish Pandey kept the scoreboard ticking but the pressure kept piling and they perished trying to up the ante. The score read 73- 4 at the end of 11 overs and it felt it was all but over for the Knights. Rahul let Andre Russell get away with a stumping chance when the latter danced down the ground looking to hit Chahal out of the park. Russell 39 (24) made them pay as he carted Tabraiz Shamsi all over the park. Yusuf Pathan who was on the other end took the cue and they made life miserable for the RCB bowlers. The devastating pair scored 96 runs off 44 balls and got KKR to the brink of victory. Chahal finally got the wicket of Russell, but the damage was already done. Pathan 60 (29) took KKR to a victory with 5 balls to spare with 5 wickets in hand.