Twitter Reactions: Bangalore hold their nerves to beat Kolkata in a low scoring thriller

Cricket is an unpredictable game and the same was witnessed in the match between Bangalore and Kolkata. The match swung to and fro and eventually it was Bangalore who won the match with three wickets to spare. The team was not chasing a mammoth total after Kolkata was bowled out for 128. However, a superb opening spell by Tim Southee and Umesh Yadav brought Kolkata back in the game and left Bangalore reeling at 17-3. Small partnership between Sherfane Rutherford and David Willey, and Rutherford and Shahbaz Ahmed kept Bangalore ahead in the game. However, a few late wickets made the match interesting. However, Dinesh Karthik kept his cool and helped Bangalore chase the target with three wickets to spare.

Earlier, Bangalore bowlers were on fire and rattled Kolkata’s batting lineup. Little cameos from Andre Russell (25) and Umesh Yadav (18) pushed Kolkata to a below-par yet defendable score.

Here’s what the skippers have to say:

Shreyas Iyer: I really found this game exciting. Before getting in, I spoke with my boys and told them that this game is going to define our character and attitude on the field no matter we defend or not. The way we fight it on the ground, that is really going to reflect our mentality in the next few games. I am really proud the way we played this game and took it till the last over. It was really tough at that moment because I wanted to get my best bowlers up there and get a few wickets early on but it didn’t work out really well. Kudos to their batsmen, they played really well out in the middle. They took out the toughest phase as soon as possible. In the end, I decided to go with Venky because he’s also got really good experience bowling at international level and you need to back them especially at the start of the tournament. It’s really important they gain confidence as early as as possible and this was one of the best games to get that.

The wicket was looking a bit dicey at the start, it was two-paced, variable and the bounce was odd. We wanted to get off to a really good start and that’s what we planned. The execution part was tough. We are going to come back with the same mindset, we are not going to chicken out. That’s what we want to focus on and that’s what we spoke about coming into the tournament that we’ll be someone who’d be taking risks. Next time when we come, we need to rectify the errors and see to it that we get the momentum as early as possible. He (Wanindu Hasaranga) bowled really well, he got off to a good start after getting my wicket. I was able to read him pretty well at the start. We had decided that we’ll play him as an off-spinner but unfortunately he bowled really good lines and lengths. He’s also very experienced and he was getting some help on this wicket. Congratulations to him