Kolkata: Shardul Thakur’s blistering knock of 68 off 29 balls and Varun Chakravarty’s four-fer, helped Kolkata Knight Riders defeat Royal Challengers Bangalore by a huge margin of 105 runs in an IPL match at Eden Gardens here on Thursday.
With this win, KKR registered themselves in the winning column, with the added help of Suyash Sharma and Sunil Narine also who bagged two and three wickets, respectively.
Shardul played a scintillating knock studded with nine boundaries and three sky-high sixes, while at the other end, Rinku, gave full support by hitting two boundaries and three sixes in 33 balls.
Earlier, Gurbaz got off to a blistering start with six fours and three sixes to catch RCB bowlers by surprise. David Willey and Karan Sharma took two wickets each for Kolkata.
Chasing 205 runs for the win, the RCB got the first blow in the form of Virat Kohli (21) in the fifth over of the innings, he was bowled out by Sunil Narine when RCB put on 44 runs on board.
In the very next over, Faf du Plessis (23) became the victim of leg-spinner Varun Chakravarty,
After the dismissal of both the openers, the middle order crumbled and wickets started falling one after the other. Six RCB batsmen failed to take their individual scores to double digits, resulting in a humiliating defeat for the team.
Batting first after losing the toss, Kolkata scored an impressive 204 for 7 in 20 overs.
In reply, RCB were all out by scoring 105 runs in 16 overs.
Electing to bat first after losing the toss, Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave Kolkata a flying start. But in the fourth over David Wiley bowled Venkatesh Iyer and Mandeep Singh to break Kolkata’s back.
Gurbaz hit big shots in the last over of the powerplay and took the team’s score to 47 in 6 overs.
KKR’s Mandeep Singh was bowled for the 15th time in the IPL. He has reached the number one spot in the list of players with the most number of dismissals in the tournament. Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma are second on the list with 14 outs each.
Gurbaz made his first fifty off 38 balls. He played big shots in the power play. Then took over the innings after the initial wicket fell and completed his half-century. He was caught out after scoring 57 runs in 44 balls.
Bengaluru’s Karn Sharma caught Gurbaz in the 12th over. He returned to the pavilion after scoring 57 runs. Then Andre Russell was also caught out on the very next ball.
Kolkata had lost 5 wickets on a score of 89 runs. Shardul, who came in to bat after that, played big shots. After completing his fifty in 20 balls, he shared a partnership of 103 runs in 47 balls with Rinku Singh.
Rinku and Shardul were caught out after scoring 46 and 68 runs, respectively.
Shardul completed his fifty in 20 balls. He hit two consecutive sixes off Michael Bracewell and completed his fifty in the 17th over. This is the joint fastest fifty of this IPL season. He tied Jos Buttler of Rajasthan Royals. Buttler completed his half-century in 20 balls against Hyderabad.
Kolkata’s Gurbaz scored 57, Venkatesh Iyer 3, Mandeep Singh 0, Nitish Rana 1 and Andre Russell 0. Umesh Yadav (6) and Sunil Narine (0) remained not out.
Karan Sharma and David Wiley took 2 wickets each for Bangalore. While Mohammad Siraj and Harshal Patel got 1-1 success.
