The visitors chased down the target with 29 balls to spare.
With two big names back in the dug out, AB De Villiers was under pressure to deliver, but the South African maestro also could not do much with the bat.
On RCB's batting woes, he felt, "Your main batsmen went for the glamour shots instead of looking to play proper cricketing shots".
Earlier the Royal Challengers scored 158-6 thanks to 52 from 43 balls from Mandeep Singh and 75 not out from 47 balls from Australia's Travis Head. Run-scoring was hard, but the Indo-Australian pair completed their 50-run partnership in the 13 over. It is the home for RCB and Away for KXIP.
Last year's finalists Royal Challengers are bottom with five points after winning just two games from 12 matches.
The right-handed batsman opened the batting in six matches for the RCB last season, having scored more than 35 on four occasions, behind also impressing batting at No.4 spot when West Indies swashbuckling batsman Gayle returned to the side to open.
18 killed in China coal mine accident
In December, explosions in two separate coal mines in the Inner Mongolia region and in Heilongjiang killed at least 59 people. According to the report, the investigation of the accident, several people from the management of the enterprise detained.
However, when explosive opener Chris Lynn dislocated his shoulder after two matches of this season, Kolkata made the inspired decision to promote Narine to the top of the order and the experiment has proved to be a resounding success. The duo looked in great form, dealing in boundaries only, scoring runs at will.
Mandeep, on the other hand, hit some lusty blows at the other end, including a six off Chris Woakes, but another wicket - in the form of de Villiers - fell in fifth over. In the next over, Narine again slammed four boundaries and one huge six off the bowling of Sreenath Aravind to notch up his half-century off just 15 deliveries.
Chris Lynn marked his return to the IPL by smashing Aniket Choudhary for 14 runs in the first over before hitting Chahal for the same in the third over.
During their last meeting, KKR had handed out a 82-run defeat to RCB after bowling them out for 49 - the lowest score in IPL history - and Gautam Gambhir's men would look to repeat the performance today.
Thus, the big guns were gone inside the powerplay, leaving the rest of the team to recuperate through the middle overs, and not for the first time this season.
Comments