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IPL 2021 - Kolkata Knight Riders Snuff Out Royal Challengers Bangalore in Eliminator Round

It was a game of errors punctuated by moments of brilliance. When #RCB took the decision to bat, we wondered what made Virat Kohli change his template that revolved around chasing. After the power play, it looked like the team had made the right choice as they'd crossed 50 runs. Then the wind was out of their sails as #KKR spin twins Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine virtually choked their batters. Varun bowled four overs for just 20 runs while Narine picked up Kohli, Maxwell, Bharat and AB de Villiers in his quota. The writing was very much on the wall as RCB couldn't even get a 100 runs in the last 14 overs. Out came a resurgent KKR who seem to have mastered Sharjah in this season. Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer got to 40 runs in the fifth over before the former fell to his new found aggression. As for Iyer, he seems to have changed costumes from an aggressor to an accumulator - a role that hasn't really brought him good returns in recent matches. When Iyer got out in the eleventh over, KKR was on 79 runs needed some solid hits. Out walked Sunil Narine and scored 20 runs in three deliveries - three sixes and two wides gifted by bowler Dan Christian, who went for plenty and more in his two overs. It was a masterstroke from skipper Eoin Morgan though we were left wondering why Virat Kohli didn't match it up by getting left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed into the fray. Those shots changed the momentum for KKR but the penchant for players to hog the strike and remove the momentum from a free swinging batsman came calling here as well. We had Nitish Rana do it first and then Dinesh Karthik, who appeared to be back to his cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof avatar. It was left to the cool heads of Morgan and the Shakib-al-Hasan to guide the former champions home and on to a clash with Delhi Capitals for a place in the finals against Chennai Super Kings.