Royal Challengers Bangaluru have suffered their seventh defeat of the season, losing by just one run to Kolkata Knight Riders in the 36th match of the IPL. Despite Will Jacks' impressive knock of 55 off 32, Cameron Green's excellent catches, Kohli's good start, and Karn Sharma's magical hat-trick, the team was unable to clinch the victory. Phil Salt had already set the foundation for KKR with his quickfire 48 off 14 balls, and Shreyas Iyer powering the innings, setting a target of 223. Andre Russell was quiet with the bat but with the ball, he remained a key contributor to KKR's win, taking three wickets of RCB. This defeat was particularly painful for RCB, they were so close and yet so far. (Scorecard | Key Battles | Full Coverage)

Royal Challengers Bengaluru Squad: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Saurav Chauhan, Dinesh Karthik(w), Mahipal Lomror, Anuj Rawat, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Reece Topley, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, Suyash Prabhudessai, Swapnil Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Karn Sharma, Glenn Maxwell, Akash Deep, Rajan Kumar, Tom Curran, Mayank Dagar, Alzarri Joseph, Cameron Green, Manoj Bhandage, Himanshu Sharma

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad: Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Venkatesh Iyer, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Suyash Sharma, Manish Pandey, Anukul Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Allah Ghazanfar, Sakib Hussain, Sherfane Rutherford, Chetan Sakariya, Nitish Rana, Srikar Bharat, Dushmantha Chameera.

To know what is going to be match prediction for KKR vs RCB tie, read more about it here -

This is an afternoon game and that changes the dynamics completely. One short boundary at 61m, the other side is at 66m, the straight boundary is 73m long. It's very hot at 43 degrees and the pitch will suffer because of that, it's very dry. Most of the pitch looks even and flat, but there's one big chunk where it's extremely dry, the grass has been removed. It's around the spinner's length and they could exploit the patches. Otherwise, this pitch has plenty of runs on offer. With this heat, the captain winning the toss should opt to bat first, commentators Graeme Swann and Sanjay Manjrekar, say in their pitch report.

Ahead of the key clash between KKR and RCB, check the Key Battles for this tie -

RCB captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bowl first at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Philip Salt(w), Sunil Narine, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Shreyas Iyer(c), Venkatesh Iyer, Andre Russell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Faf du Plessis(c), Virat Kohli, Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik(w), Mahipal Lomror, Karn Sharma, Lockie Ferguson, Yash Dayal, Mohammed Siraj.

KKR's Philip Salt threw the ball up above all the eyes, in the first delivery of RCB's Mohammed Siraj clinching a super six! followed by a super four in the second delivery.

KKR - 12/0 (1)

Philip Salt is unstoppable, in 13 balls the dangerous Salt has executed 7 fours and 3 sixes, an aggregate of 48.

KKR - 55/0 (4)

On the verge of creating the record for most runs in the least balls, Philip Salt ends his run with 48 off 14 balls with Siraj's delivery and Rajat Patidar's catch.

KKR - 57/1 (4.3)

Yash Dayal gets the big wickets, just according to the plan, dismissing the run machine, Sunil Narine with the help of Virat Kohli's perfect catch. And then, Raghuvanshi with an unbelievable catch by Cameron Green.

KKR - 75/3 (6)

Down with Salt, Narine, Raghuvanshi and Venkatesh Iyer, KKR's hope is now carried by captain Shreyas Iyer and Rinku Singh.

KKR - 105/4 (10)

After Rinku Sharma (24 off 16 balls) leaves the ground in despair, Shreyas Iyer (40 off 32 balls) comes in partnership with Andre Russell to carry the hopes for a good innings.

KKR - 155/5 (16)

KKR still in the powerplay is down with Shreyas Iyer now with 50 off 36 balls as Cameron Green once again scythes the batter away with a brilliant bowling and Faf du Plessis's beautiful catch.

KKR - 176/6 (17.2)

Despite the very excellent bowling by RCB, the Riders have managed to set a big innings, 222 in 20 overs. Russell (27 off 20) remained quiet but Ramandeep Singh's bat shouted well from the start to the end, executing an unbeaten 24 off just 9 balls. Now the Challengers need to score 223 runs to win this match and their second match of the season.

KKR - 222/6 (20)

Brief Score, KKR - 222/6 (20)

Phil Salt - 48 (14), Shreyas Iyer - 50 (36), Rinku Singh - 24 (16),

Andre Russell - 27 (20), Ramandeep Singh - 24 (9)

Carrying RCB's hope to power their second win of the season, Virat Kohli is on the field with skipper Faf and has executed a four and two six in six balls so far. A good start, it is.

RCB - 27/0 (2)

Harshit Rana gets a massive victory dismissing Virat Kohli at 18 off 7 balls. Faf follows Kohli to leave the ground as Varun Chakaravarthy scythes him away, scythes the hopes for the Challengers. Not a good start anymore! Now Will Jacks is in charge.

RCB - 36/2 (3.3)

Down with Kohli and Faf, RCB is not yet down with hopes, as Will Jacks takes the responsibility and lets his bat do the work, 40 off 19, he throws 4 sixes and 3 fours. Rajat Patidar replaces the skipper.

RCB - 76/2 (6.3)

Will Jacks with his unbeaten 55 off 31 and Rajat Patidar, even better, with 52 off 21 balls, high on hopes, high on the ground, are doing what RCB needs to win the match - keeping down the morales of Kolkata Bowlers.

RCB - 131/2 (11)

With Jacks's dismissal, a shadow cast on the Royal Challengers Bengaluru. Patidar goes down to Andre Russel's delivery, and Cameron Green goes down to Sunil Narine. Mahipal Lomror comes in, and goes off in a moment, as Narine's dangerous bowling claims two wickets in a row.

RCB - 160/6 (13)

RCB's seventh fall of wicket takes down Suyash Prabhudessai for 24 off 18 balls. Now it all depends on the best finisher of IPL 2024, Dinesh Karthik.

RCB - 189/7 (17)

Karn Sharma executes, 1, 2, and 3, Sixes but in front of Mitchel Starc no magic worked. He dismisses Sharma and then Ramandeep drops the last wicket for RCB running out Lockie Furguson.

With the bowlers in charge, the Knight Riders finally secured home victory at the very crucial point of the sport - need of 3 runs in 1 ball. A boundary by Lockie Ferguson would have snatched the win for RCB, but it was meant for Shreyas Iyer's side. KKR wins the match by 1 run.

RCB - 221/10 (20)

KKR - 222/6 (20)

"It was crazy, rules are rules, Virat and myself thought that the ball was higher than the waist (on Kohli's dismissal), I guess they measured from the popping crease, one team thinks it's high, the other doesn't. That's how the game goes at times. The small things, I am actually proud of the boys tonight, the way we bowled and fielded, we did give away a couple of big overs towards the end, but I thought we kept them down to a par score. We thought we'll go hard in the batting powerplay, find those boundaries at the start of the innings. We were desperate, 10/10 from an effort perspective, the way we put up the effort in the ground, the faces told the story. We've got an unbelievable fanbase, we want to make them happy, we want them to have a smile on their face. We'll have to continue putting in our efforts and try to change things around."

(On close games like these) It takes a lot off your body and drains you out completely because you go through so many emotions. It’s tough to stay calm but I’m elated. We got two points on the board and that’s all that matters. It’s extremely tough when the pressure is on, I feel that every individual should put their hands up and take the responsibility. Russell did that by picking up two wickets and completely changed the game in our favor, that kind of attitude is needed in the team. It’s a funny game, when you need 18 runs off 6 balls, the pressure is on the bowler. It was a pivotal knock, I wanted to stay till the end and steady the ship. We were losing wickets and I wanted to stay till the end and see it off. We got some important boundaries towards the end and I was very happy about that.

Thanks to the almighty. I always back my bowling as I said earlier. Getting the ball at a crucial time, I knew that I had to come good and thankfully it happened today. Happy for the two points. When I was batting earlier, change of pace was difficult to hit. As a bowler that’s what I wanted to do. The slower balls were gripping and holding. Was happy to get the two set batters out and I think that’s what changed the game. Those two wickets from Narine were also very important and that’s what started the slide for RCB. When I look at the bowling equation, I had two left and I conditioned myself to bowl that (19th) over. Tried to give Starc as many runs as I could. DK wasn’t getting off strike so I looked at bowling 6 deliveries to him and mix it up, thankfully it worked.

The 36th match of IPL witnessed a thrilling win 1-run victory for Kolkata Knight Riders, which places them back to second place in the points table trailing just by Rajasthan Royals. But, the 1-run defeat of RCB managed to win no points, just the hearts of fans once again. They remain in the bottom position.