Mohammed Siraj bowled a fiery opening spell including two maiden overs, as Royal Challengers Bangalore thumped the Kolkata Knight Riders by 8 wickets in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
Kolkata included Tom Banton and Prasidh Krishna in place of Andre Russell and Shivam Mavi, while Bangalore dropped young Shahbaz Ahmed and brought in Siraj.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Kolkata Knight Riders got off to a disastrous start by losing Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana off successive deliveries to Siraj.
In the third over Navdeep Saini dismissed Shubman Gill after the youngster mistimed a pull shot and was caught at deep midwicket by Chris Morris.
England’s Tom Banton became Siraj’s third victim, as he edged one behind to Ab De Villiers for 10, as KKR were in dire straits at 14/4.
Dinesh Karthik along with Eion Morgan tried to put a partnership together, but the former was trapped leg before wicket to Yuzvendra Chahal for the fifth time this season.
Skipper Morgan was the only batsman to offer some resistance with a top-score of 30, as Knight Riders ended up with a below par score of 84/8 at the end of 20 overs.
The 26 year old Siraj ended up with figures of 3/8, while leggie Yuzvendra Chahal, finished with 2/15 off his four overs.
Chasing 85, Royal Challengers opening pair of Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch made a solid beginning by adding 46 runs for the opening stand, before Finch was caught by Karthik off Lockie Ferguson for 16.
Devdutt Padikkal looked good in his innings of 25, until he was run out quite bizarrely by Pat Cummins.
The pair of Gurkeerat Singh Mann along with skipper Virat Kohli ensured that there no further hiccups, as Bangalore reached the target of 85 in 13.3 overs.
With this victory RCB climbed to the second spot, with 14 points after 10 games, while KKR remained in fourth position with 10 points.
Mohammed Siraj was declared the Player of the Match.