IPL 2023: Venkatesh Iyer snaps up Kohli, DK fails to finish as KKR beat RCB

Jason Roy breaks free of the trap
The trap was set. Knowing Jason Roy’s penchant to drive airily through the off-side, Mohammed Siraj placed a short mid-off. Roy knew how the next ball would be. Siraj landed the ball on good length outside the off-stump and angled it into Roy. The England opener would take on the challenge. An emphatic forward stride, crisp bat-swing and he crunched the ball on the rise through the barely two-meter gap between the bowler and fielder. The latter anticipated the shot and reacted with a sideways lunge, but the ball was so sweetly struck that it whled past him. Siraj stared disconsolately at the fielder, who averted his gaze and gestured with his hands that the ball was too far away from him. The form Roy is in, the smartest of traps could look foolish.
Graceful Jason, Muscling Roy
In two balls, Jason Roy showed the two sides of his batting. The graceful face first, when he glided down the track to Shahbaz Ahmed and check-drove him against the turn over mid-on for a six. There was barely any muscle-flex in the stroke, as the left-arm spinner looked genuinely marveled at the ease of the stroke. The next ball, he saw the powerful side of Roy, as he slogged him in a good old fashioned way with a lot of body into the stroke, over deep mid-wicket. Ahmed looked gobsmacked.. the end of the over, he would wear a resigned expression, as Roy picked him for two more sixes (first a pull and then a slog).

WHAT. A. CATCH 🔥🔥@Russell12A gets the big wicket of Virat Kohli as @venkateshiyer takes a stunning catch 👏🏻👏🏻#TATAIPL | #RCBvKKR pic.twitter.com/RNrIKSaqTs
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 26, 2023
Costly slips
Harshal Patel kicked the turf in anger. He had just spilled a straightforward catch off Nitish Rana, the second time he was dropped in the night. Just like Mohammed Siraj was reintroduced into the attack after he had dropped Rana, Patel was commissioned to bowl the next over, as though a punishment for the dropped catch. A punishment it turned out to be for Patel, as Rana struck him for a pair of sixes. Typical Rana sixes they were—get inside the line of the ball, then either pull, as he did in the first instance when the slower ball was short, or whip-flick the ball, if it’s straying down the ground. Reprieved on 6 and 19, Rana freewheeled to a 21-ball 48. Patel would kick the turf again after the twin sixes.
Screaming Siraj
Ahead of the game Sanjay Bangar, RCB’s coach, had said that they have a bowling plan against Andre Russell, which they have consently used in the past. Mohammad Siraj came up with an inch-perfect yorker to take down the big man. Russell was set deep inside the crease, especially for the yorker, but Siraj’s missile was fast, accurate, really full, and squeezed under the bat to crash into the bottom of the leg stump. And boy did Siraj, who had given away 15 runs in that 19th over, enjoy it. He screamed, veins popping out, and even Russell who on his haunches, looked across at Siraj.
Standing outside leg, slamming away
Whether it’s because of lbw threats or because he wants to be away from the ball, creating his own width, Virat Kohli has been standing well clear of the leg stump in his stance. And when Umesh Yadav got a length delivery to shape away from the off stump – a lovely outswinger in other words – Kohli reached across, and flayed with supremely on the up and over extra cover with a fluid bat swing. Then sashayed down the track to slice a fullish ball on the off stump. That outside-leg stance is allowing him to make his own width.

Venkatesh Iyer pouches Kohli
Kohli had smashed Andre Russell towards long-on but hadn’t gone for the elevation and dance nor got it down to the ground. Still, the ball was rapidly dipping near the boundary when Venkatesh Iyer moved smartly to his left, got down low to pouch it with both hands. And his expression said that he thought the game was over. And it was.
DK 2022 > DK 2023
Dinesh Karthik, who had a great IPL season to storm into the Indian team for the T20 world cup, hasn’t had a stellar outing this year. This was a game that demanded DK of the last year; instead it got this year’s version came out. He had just carted Andre Russell over backward square-leg to raise hopes for RCB, but fell tamely in the next over. It was a long hop from Varun Chakravarthy, a rare bad ball on the day from the tweaker, but DK’s pull was weak, and found deep midwicket fielder. In the last game, too he had found the fielder there with another tame pull. If RCB and DK can’t finish these games, the pressure on the top order amps up even more.