It was a massacre of the RCB batting line-up, the lowest score ever in IPL’s history that remained intact as an embarrassing record
Take any T20 tournament in the world, be it international or domestic; every team aims to score at least 150 runs or above. Nowadays, teams even reach close to 300. Yes, not every match needs to be high-scoring, but 150 is expected from all batting sides, irrespective of pitch conditions.
Unfortunately, in 2017, Royal Challengers Bengaluru faltered in such a fashion that even after seven years, the team lives on with the record of having scored the lowest runs in an IPL match – 49 all out at the hands of Kolkata Knight Riders.
Under the purple lights of the majestic Eden Gardens in Kolkata, the Knights were put to bat first. The Kolkata line-up did not feature too many big names, and therefore, they fumbled poorly, which wasn’t a surprise for many.
Except for former captain Gautam Gambhir, no other player could go past the 15-run mark. In 19.3 overs, the entire team was back in the dugout with only 131 runs on board.
In short, the match felt half lost midway into the game for KKR.
The target should’ve been a walk in the park for Bengaluru, with names such as Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at the top. However, none of them could spend too much time on the crease.
Chris Gayle only made seven runs in 17 balls by spending 37 minutes on the crease. The rest of the batting lineup were gone within minutes, and nobody was venturing into double-digit figures.
For KKR, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Colin de Grandhomme and Chris Woakes picked three wickets each – three bowlers whose international careers, to be honest, aren’t worth looking at.
It took KKR less than an hour to win the game, 59 minutes, to be precise. The RCB line-up was bundled for 49 runs in 9.4 overs, and KKR won the game by 82 runs despite scoring merely 131 runs.
The defeat was shocking for the entire cricket world because such a downfall wasn’t expected from a team like RCB. The previous year, the team had finished second in the table, whereas Virat Kohli had his best IPL season, scoring 973 runs, which remains a record even today for the highest number of runs scored in a single IPL season by an individual.
However, in 2017, RCB finished at the bottom, whereas Kolkata Knight Riders made it to the top four by winning eight out of 14 matches.
Head-to-head, KKR and RCB have played 35 matches against each other, with KKR winning 20 matches, whereas RCB won 15. In the years to come, no matter how many matches RCB wins, their horrible loss to KKR will remain etched in the history books of the IPL.
If RCB had a wand from the world of Harry Potter, they would’ve indeed used the ‘Obliviate’ charm to erase the memories of that wretched night.
