IPL 2018 Report Card: Kolkata Knight Riders' Chris Lynn tops; Royal Challengers Bangalore wrist-spinners fail to impress

An uber energetic Chris Lynn and a fiery Dinesh Karthik snatched the victory for Kolkata Knight Riders and pushed Royal Challengers Bangalore to the bottom of the points table on Sunday at Bengaluru. Buoyed by Virat Kohli’s special innings, Bangalore had put up a more than formidable total, or so it seemed. But lack of a strong bowling unit once again hurt the hosts as Lynn and Co wrecked havoc at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Here, we put together a report card of players from either side: Virat Kohli - 10/10 In the absence of AB de Villiers, Kohli took it upon himself to anchor the RCB innings and did a fine job with a 44-ball 68 that included some eye-catching strokes all around the wicket. At one stage, it appeared as if RCB would struggle to put together 150, but Kohli stayed till the end, scoring 28 off his last 11, to take his side to a par score of 175. He completed his day with an insane catch to send back a rampant Dinesh Karthik. Chris Lynn - 10/10 [caption id=“attachment_4450671” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kolkata Knight Riders’ Chris Lynn plays a shot against Royal Challengers Bangalore. AFP[/caption] Chris Lynn shed his insanity and showed more method in his madness as he compiled a fine half-century countering the spinners with a slew of sweep shots. His weaknesses against spin took a backseat as he employed a shot he had played just twice before in the IPL as many as sixteen times in the match. He remained unbeaten on 62 and took his team to a wonderful win. Andre Russell - 9/10 The West Indian all-rounder was injured two games ago and seemed like a doubtful starter. At Chinnaswamy, he turned up with the ball and put in a compelling performance, picking up three wickets. He, however, fell for a golden duck when KKR needed him to take them past the line. Kuldeep Yadav - 9/10 An exceptional Kuldeep Yadav put a leash on RCB’s scoring rate and broke the opening stand with the big wicket of Quinton de Kock. He conceded only 20 runs in his four overs and was Kolkata’s standout bowler of the night. Robin Uthappa - 9/10 As it has been the case right through this season, Uthappa, once again, appeared in pristine touch and lambasted RCB bowlers enroute his way to a 21-ball 36 that ended when he slogged Murugan Ashwin to long-on. Dinesh Karthik - 9/10 Karthik’s reputation as a finisher keeps growing after each game and he nearly did a Nidahas repeat at Chinnaswamy as he exploded to a 9-ball 23 before Kohli pulled off a spectacular catch to get rid of him. Brendon McCullum - 8/10 Returning to the starting XI, McCullum had to overcome his weakness against leg-spin and mystery spin early on and did so with aplomb. His 38 came off 28 balls and gave RCB a solid platform to launch from. Sunil Narine - 7/10 With RCB possessing a slew of batsmen with weaknesses against spin, Narine was thought to be Kolkata’s wild card for the night but ended up giving away 38 runs in his four overs. However, Narine rode his luck with the willow and made a quickfire 27 in 19 balls. Mandeep Singh - 6/10 After Kohli and de Villiers, Mandeep has perhaps been one of the most successful RCB batsmen this season. He threatened to take over de Villiers’ role as he smashed Narine for two sixes in an over at Chinnaswamy but couldn’t quite nail it down like the South African. But then, who can? Murugan Ashwin - 6/10 The leg-spinner returned to the IPL by dropping Chris Lynn’s catch but turned it around quickly with two wickets and some sharp turn off a sluggish deck. He will need to work on his tendency to bowl loose balls but Ashwin can be quite a handful on helpful surfaces. Quinton de Kock - 6/10 The South African wicket-keeper batsman has got starts right through the season but hasn’t quite carried on and the trend continued at home when he, alongside, Brendon McCullum, put on 67 for the opening wicket. He fell to Kuldeep Yadav while trying to hit him inside out. Shivam Mavi - 5/10 The under-19 seamer has been a regular feature in KKR’s starting XI and bowled impressively in his three-over spell that went for just seven an over although he didn’t have anything to show for in the wickets column. Colin de Grandhomme - 5/10 The big Kiwi all-rounder was once again used as a batsman, scored a six-ball 11 and remained unbeaten. He pulled off a nice catch near the ropes to dismiss Sunil Narine but wasn’t used with the ball despite RCB’s bowling not clicking. Yuzvendra Chahal - 5/10 Countered relentlessly with the sweep shot, Chahal appeared a touch lost and couldn’t buy a wicket in his four-over spell that went for just over seven runs per over. Nitish Rana - 4/10 The Delhi all-rounder seemed to be in pretty good touch as he raced to 15 in 10 balls before a back spasm saw him walking off the ground in the final few overs of the run chase. Piyush Chawla - 4/10 The veteran leg-spinner took the new ball yet again to exploit the weakness of Brendon McCullum. Although, he couldn’t dismiss the Kiwi, Chawla sent down a very good first over. His three overs didn’t yield a wicket and went for 22 runs. Tim Southee - 3/10 Southee’s inclusion was expected to add some much needed zing to RCB’s bowling attack but the Kiwi ended up bowling too short or too full and had a rather poor outing. Mohammad Siraj - 2/10 The seamer, known for his expensive spells, bowled short, attacked the batsmen with bouncers and had the big wicket of Andre Russell to show for. However, he did his case some harm with four wides in his spell and an expensive 19th over. Umesh Yadav - 1/10 After a terrific start to his IPL, Umesh Yadav has gone about proving why he isn’t among the first names in India’s limited-overs sides. He was taken to the cleaners by Sunil Narine and Chris Lynn and conceded 24 in his first two overs. Mitchell Johnson - 1/10 It is strange that KKR have chosen to stick by Mitchell Johnson despite his pathetic returns in recent matches. He conceded at 12 an over, including a 16-run final over that gave RCB enough momentum heading into the second innings. Manan Vohra - 1/10 Vohra hasn’t quite clicked for RCB yet and hasn’t been able to make the kind of impact he was bought for. That said, it could also be a reflection of the kind of faith Kohli has shown in him. His golden duck could see him being dropped yet again. *Shubman Gill hasn’t been rated for his minimal role in the game Rating chart: 10-9: Excellent, 8-7: Good, 6-5: Average, 4-3: Poor, 2-1: Very poor