Kolkata Knight Riders–Royal Challengers Bangalore rivalry

The Kolkata Knight Riders-Royal Challengers Bangalore is a cricket rivalry between the IPL teams of Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and the defunct Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20). It is the oldest rivalry of the IPL and is often referred to as the El Primero of the Indian Premier League. Both teams have faced each other 32 times in the IPL and 1 time in CLT20, with the Kolkata Knight Riders having more victories (20). Kolkata Knight Riders have 3 IPL titles, while Royal Challengers Bangalore have none. The rivalry became more intense when, during the 2013 Indian Premier League faceoff between the two teams, Gautam Gambhir had a verbal spat with Virat Kohli when Kohli was sledged after being dismissed by Lakshmipathy Balaji. This incident increased the hype of the rivalry and is still constant despite the departure of Gambhir from the Knight Riders in 2018.

The highest run-scorer from this fixture is Virat Kohli (Royal Challengers Bangalore) with 962 runs, while the highest wicket-taker is Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders) with 26 wickets.

Round 1: The beginning of Indian Premier League
Both the teams played the inaugural match of the Indian Premier League. RCB won the first toss of the tournament and elected to bowl. KKR batting first, posted a mammoth total of 222 runs for 3 wickets in 20 overs due to a marvellous inning played by Brendon McCullum who scored 158* in 73 balls and became the first centurion of the tournament.

The second inning saw the RCB batters struggling against KKR pacers and were bowled out for just 82 runs. Ajit Agarkar picked-up the first three-wicket haul (3/25) of the tournament. The winning margin of 140 runs by Knight Riders was the biggest winning margin in terms of runs until Royal Challengers had beaten it against Gujarat Lions in 2016.

2009: 100th match of Indian Premier League
The 100th match of the Indian Premier League saw both teams playing against each other at the SuperSport Park, Centurion as the tournament was shifted to South Africa due to the 2009 Indian general election. RCB won the first toss of the tournament and elected to bowl. Brendon McCullum continued his form against the Royal Challengers scoring 84 runs. KKR lost their first two wickets in quick succession for just 21 runs, but the partnership between McCullum and David Hussey helped stabilise the conditions which helped the team reach a total of 173 runs.

Batting second, the Royal Challengers started steadily with a 58-run opening stand between Jesse Ryder and Jacques Kallis. The team lost two wickets in quick succession which reduced them to 74/3, but the partnership between Ross Taylor and Rahul Dravid and later Taylor and Mark Boucher took the team to the finish line successfully. Taylor played a mindblowing innings of 81 runs in just 33 balls and was adjudged the Player of the Match.

2013: A new chapter
During the second innings of the match between both the teams in the 2013 Indian Premier League at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, Virat Kohli was dismissed and sledged by Lakshmipathy Balaji, which led to a heating exchange between them. Gautam Gambhir also stepped in the matter in defence of his KKR teammate which led to a verbal spat between him and Kohli. However, the Royal Challengers comfortably won the match due to Chris Gayle's 81*. This incident opened a new chapter in the rivalry which gave more hype to the rivalry of both teams. Since then, the rivalry has often been called the "Kohli-Gambhir Rivalry".

During an interview with Jatin Sapru, Gambhir praised Kohli for the impressive transformation he has shown in his personality as an athlete and as a person. "That's why there was nothing personal [then] and there never will be personal against Virat Kohli. And I say again and again that what he's achieved, I am not surprised. That's the kind of player he was when we saw him early but what he's transformed into, I think from a fitness point of view and the way he's worked on his skills is tremendous."

Round 1: The debacle at Eden Gardens
It was the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League. Both teams played against each other on 23 April 2017 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata where the Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to bowl. A brilliant performance by RCB bowlers restricted the Knight Riders to 131 with Yuzvendra Chahal taking 3 wickets and Tymal Mills and Pawan Negi taking 2 wickets each. Sunil Narine was sent to open the innings for the first time in his career as a tactical move by captain Gautam Gambhir and hit an important 34 runs in 17 balls in the first innings.

Although it initially seemed like the Royal Challengers were set for an easy win, the KKR pacers dismissed the top order within the first three overs, resulting in a significant setback for the team as their backbone had gone to the pavilion. This eventually led to the team's downfall, as they were bowled out for just 49 runs, the tournament's lowest score to date. This was the first match in the tournament where all the 10 wickets were taken by pacers, with Umesh Yadav taking 1 wicket and Chris Woakes, Colin de Grandhomme and Nathan Coulter-Nile clinching 3 wickets each. Nathan Coulter-Nile was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match for his fabulous bowling (2 & 3/21).

Round 2: The Sunil Narine Show
The Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bowl in the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Like the previous fixture, the KKR bowlers departed the top-order trio (Gayle, Kohli and de Villiers) early within the powerplay. The partnership between Mandeep Singh (52) and Travis Head (75*) brought them back into the game and the Royal Challengers finished the innings at 158 runs at the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Umesh Yadav and Sunil Narine picked up three and two wickets respectively.

Batting second, the Knight Riders went off to a flying start the opening pair of Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine scoring a century-partnership of 105 runs. Knight Riders also registered the tournament record for the highest total in the powerplay stage (105–0). The Royal Challengers tried to bring back the situation in their hands by clinching both the opener's wickets consecutively. However, the partnership between Colin de Grandhomme and Gautam Gambhir ensured the team's victory. The Knight Riders won the match by 6 wickets with 29 balls remaining. Sunil Narine was awarded the Man of the Match award for his all-round performance (2-29 & 54).

Round 3: The first head-off in playoffs
Both teams met against each other for the first time in the IPL playoffs. The match was played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah where the Royal Challengers elected to bat first. The Royal Challengers went off to a great start with Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal building a solid 49-run partnership, which was ultimately broken by Lockie Ferguson within the powerplay. The Knights' bowlers slowed down the innings and restricted them to 138/7 in 20 overs. Kohli scored 39 runs, the top run-scorer in this match. Ferguson took 2 wickets while Sunil Narine picked up 4 important wickets (including Kohli, Bharat, de Villiers and Maxwell) for just 21 runs.

The Knight Riders started on a good note, scoring a partnership of 41 runs between Shubman Gill (29) and Venkatesh Iyer (26). The Royal Challengers tried to bring the game into their control by dismissing the top-3 batters within 11 overs of the innings. Nitish Rana (23) and Narine (26) bring their team close to the finish line. The Deathovers were like a roller-coaster adventure, the winning chances for teams were going ups and downs. 2-2 wickets were taken by Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal and Harshal Patel respectively. Sunil Narine was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match award for his blistering all-round performance (4/21 & 26).

2022
This match was played at DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai to comply with COVID-19 safety protocols during the whole tournament. For the first time, both the teams played against each other for a single time in a IPL season, due to the expansion of teams in the league from 8 to 10.

The Royal Challengers invited the Knights to bat first. Despite the Knight Riders scoring 44 in the powerplay, the Royal Challengers had a good start by clinching 3 wickets. The Half-team of the Knights returned to the pavilion for just 67 runs. Sam Billings (14) and Andre Russell (25) were trying to bring the situation under control but they were dismissed by Harshal Patel (2-11), who picked up 2 wickets. They were even reduced to 101/9, thanks to the 4-wicket haul by Wanindu Hasaranga (4-20). But the 27-run partnership between Umesh Yadav (18) and Varun Chakravarthy (10*) for the 10th wicket helped the team to reach to 128 runs. Akash Deep picked up three wickets (3-20) and Mohammed Siraj picked up a single wicket (1-25).

While it seemed to be an easy chase for the Challengers, the Knights pacers Umesh (2-16) and Southee (3-20) made it quite difficult as they dismissed the top-order batters back to the pavilion for just 17 runs. While it was a slow start for the Royal Challengers, David Willey (18) and Sherfane Rutherford (28) and later, Rutherford and Shahbaz Ahmed (27) brought the team back on track with a slow but steady 45 and 39 runs partnership respectively. However, the Knights clinched three wickets in quick succession reducing them to 111/7, the Challengers still requiring 17 in 11 balls. Harshal (10*) and Karthik (14*) guided the team to a scintillating victory by 3 wickets with 4 balls to spare by scoring 21 runs in just 9 balls. Wanindu Hasaranga was awarded the Player of the Match Award for his spectacular performance in the match (4/20 & 4).

Round 1
The Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to bowl at the Eden Gardens. Rahmanullah Gurbaz opened the innings and scored a steady 57 runs, despite the Knights losing wickets at regular intervals. Rinku Singh and Shardul Thakur put up a partnership of 103 runs, scoring 46 and 68 runs respectively which led the Knights to score a total of 204 runs in 20 overs. David Willey and Karn Sharma picked 2 wickets each.

In return, the Royal Challengers went off to a flying start scoring 43/0 in just 4 overs. But after the loss of the openers (Kohli and du Plessis) in quick succession by the spinning duo of Knights, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy, the Challengers were reduced to 61/5 within 9 overs. Willey and Michael Bracewell were trying to get the innings on track which ended when Thakur took his wicket. A blistering bowling by the Impact player and debutant Suyash Sharma ended the Challengers' winning hopes by picking up 3 wickets. Chakravarthy and Narine picked up 4 and 3 wickets respectively. Shardul Thakur was awarded the Player-of-the-Match for his all-round performance (68 & 1-15).

Round 2
The Royal Challengers elected to bowl at their home ground, the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. The Knight Riders get off to a great start to a flying start with the opening pair between Jason Roy and Narayan Jagadeesan putting an 83-run partnership, scoring 56 and 27 runs respectively. Both openers' wickets fell quickly thanks to Vijaykumar Vyshak. Still, the partnership between captain Nitish Rana and Venkatesh Iyer contributed 80 runs, with Rana and Iyer scoring 48 and 31 individually. Rinku Singh played a quick-fire 18* innings to guide the team to a score of 200 runs.

In the 2nd innings, the Royal Challengers had a positive start but lost 3 wickets within the powerplay scoring 58 runs. But the 55-run partnership between Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror was guiding the team to victory, until both of them lost their wickets in quick successions to Andre Russell and Varun Chakravarthy respectively, scoring 54 and 34 runs individually. Chakravarthy picked up 3 wickets while Russell and Suyash clinched 2-2 wickets individually, reducing the Challengers to 179 runs, ensuring a 21-run victory for the Knights. Varun Chakravarthy was adjudged the Player-of-the-Match for his magical spell (3-27).

Round 2
The match was played between Knight Riders led by Shreyas Iyer and Royal Challengers led by Faf du Plessis. The match was played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata in daylight. Royal Challengers won the toss and elected to bowl first. Kolkata started well with Phil Salt and Sunil Narine scoring 56 runs partnership before Mohammed Siraj broke the partnership. However, Kolkata managed to score 75-3 during the powerplay stage. Shreyas Iyer tried to stabilize the innings with Rinku Singh and Andre Russell who built partnerships of 40 and 42 runs respectively, with the captain scoring a half-century. Even though some dismissals occurred, the batting team was able to keep up a run rate of 10 rpo. Ramandeep Singh hit some quick shots towards the end and the partnership between him and Russell led the Knight Riders to a total of 222 runs with the loss of 6 wickets. Cameron Green picked up 2 crucial wickets conceding only 35 runs, which helped Royal Challengers restrict the batting side from scoring more runs. Yash Dayal clinched 2 wickets while Mohammed Siraj and Lockie Ferguson took 1 wicket each.Despite not taking any wickets, Karn Sharma conceded only 33 runs in his full quota of 4 overs, which could have been advantageous for the team, considering the pitch conditions.

In the second innings, the Kohli-du Plessis pair put pressure on the bowlers right from the beginning. During the 3rd over, Harshit Rana caught and bowled Kohli by bowling a slower full-toss to Kohli, which was too given out by the on-field umpires. However, Kohli was reluctant with this decision and decided to review this appeal, but the third umpire too supported the decision of the on-field umpires. This led to an exchange of heat between Kohli and on-field umpires. Faf was also dismissed in the next over. Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar formed a partnership, scoring a century to keep the team on track for the chase, which was ultimately broken by Russell who picked up both of their wickets in the same over. In the next over, despite conceding runs, Narine picked 2 wickets in the same over, bringing the game under their control. Dinesh Karthik and Suyash Prabhudessai were chasing towards the target steadily, but Harshit got Prabhudessai out. Russell took the wicket of Karthik, with Bangalore now needing 21 runs in the last over. While it seemed it would be a win for Kolkata, it was no less than a roller coaster adventure. The last over was bowled by Mitchell Starc, who conceded 3 sixes in the first 4 balls by Karn Sharma, with the Royal Challengers needing 3 off just 2 balls now. Karn was caught and bowled by Starc in the fifth ball, with 3 runs needed off the last ball. In the last ball, Ferguson digs it well at deep cover and sets off for a second run. But the throw by Ramandeep towards the keeper ensured the victory for the Knight Riders by the slightest margin of just 1 run. The bowlers conceded just 28 in the last 4 overs before the last over which had made the difference. Narine and Harshit clinched two wickets each with Varun Chakravarthy and Starc picking a wicket each. Andre Russell took 3 wickets for just 25 runs in 3 overs and was awarded the Player of the Match.

The dismissal of Kohli sparked a social media feud, with the users divided into two factions. Cricketers such as Navjot Singh Sidhu and Mohammed Kaif came in support of Kohli and criticized the immature decision by the umpires, experts such as Harsha Bhogle and Irfan Pathan came in support of the decision. The next day, Star Sports clarified the confusion by stating, "Virat was indeed out as per the official rule book. The rule states that for a delivery to be considered a no-ball, the ball must be at waist height as it crosses the stepping crease. In Kohli's situation, while the ball was at waist height when he encountered it, as it crossed the stepping crease, it was below waist height, making it a fair delivery based on the official rule." Moreover, Kohli has been fined 50 percent of his match fees for breaching the Level 1 IPL Code of Conduct. This match is considered the closest and most thrilling contest in their head-to-head history.

Result summary

 * Bold indicates most wins.

Head-to-head in IPL points table rankings



 * Total:
 * Kolkata Knight Riders with 6 higher finishes
 * Royal Challengers Bangalore with 10 higher finishes.


 * Difference in Positions:
 * Kolkata Knight Riders from Royal Challengers Bangalore is 5 places (2014 IPL)
 * Royal Challengers Bangalore from Kolkata Knight Riders is 5 places (2009 IPL).


 * Qualification for Semis/Playoffs:
 * Kolkata Knight Riders qualified 8 times
 * Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified 9 times