Royal Challengers Bangalore 194 for 2 (de Villiers 73*, Finch 47, Kohli 33*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 112 for 9 (Gill 34, Morris 2-17, Sundar 2-20) by 82 runs

AB de Villiers scored 73 off 33 balls, at a strike rate of 221.21. Everyone else who batted - a list including Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli, Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell - combined to score 218 off 208 balls, at a strike rate of 104.81.

This was Sharjah, but not the Sharjah that produced seven 200-plus totals in its first eight innings of IPL 2020. There had been much talk before the tournament of how pitches would tire and slow down in time, and provide increasing assistance to the slower bowlers. That moment has arrived, on the evidence of this game, at least in Sharjah. This wasn't a 194 pitch, but de Villiers' genius enabled Royal Challengers Bangalore to score that much.

On this pitch, it was always going to be a task for the Kolkata Knight Riders to surpass that. Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal made that task impossible, combining for eight overs of unhittable spin bowling that produced combined figures of 3 for 32. The Royal Challengers romped to an 82-run win, which moved them to 10 points from seven games and left them in a three-way tie on top of the IPL leaderboard with the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals.

More to follow…