2nd day of IPL 2018 will be remembered by outclassing performance of KL Rahul who blasted the IPL's fastest half-century to give Kings XI Punjab a stimulating start to their 2018 IPL crusade. Rahul destroyed the Delhi Daredevils attack in a ruthless performance, getting to the momentous score within three overs and off just 14 balls.
Strangely, though, Kings XI ended up huffing and puffing to their target of 167. After Rahul's dismissal, Kings XI only made 103 runs in 84 balls. But such had been the damage exacted by Rahul that they still managed to win with seven balls to standby.
All that after Gautam Gambhir, the Daredevils captain, celebrated his return to his hometown franchise with a fighting half-century. But Kings XI's spin duo of R Ashwin and the 17-year old debutant Mujeeb Ur Rahman led a strong bowling performance to restrict Daredevils to a total that was just about par.
Kings XI stacked their attack with three spinners, and each of them contributed to pulling the team back. Thus, Kings Xi winning their first contest.
Sunil Narine traps Royal Challengers once more
In the second match of the day, Kolkata Knight Riders 177 for 6 (Narine 50, Karthik 35*, Woakes 3-36) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 176 for 7 (De Villiers 44, McCullum 43, Rana 2-11) by four wickets.
Sunil Narine's fifty at 17 balls and Nitish Rana's epic display made Kolkata Knight Riders win their season’s start against Royal Challengers Bangalore by four wickets. Batted first under cloudy skies as of losing the toss, Royal Challengers posted 176 on board, an ordinary total on a good batting pitch, and just as he did in last season against the same opponents, Narine blasted away a substantial chunk of the target in very little time. The middle-order built on his efforts to steer Knight Riders home with seven balls to spare.
RCB had an extraordinary opportunity to set up a big total especially after being positioned at 127 for 2 after 14.1 overs, but a one-over spell from part-time off-spinner Rana, who took out AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli with consecutive balls, swung the momentum Knight Riders' way.
After Narine, Umesh Yadav - a former Knight Rider himself - took two wickets in two back-to-back overs, but Dinesh Karthik (35*), Rana (34) and Andre Russell (15) took KKR to victory without too many undue alarms.
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