At the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by a score of 81 runs in match nine of the IPL 2023. Chasing a target of 205 runs, RCB were bowled out for 123 in 17.3 overs, with Suyash Sharma claiming three wickets and Varun Chakravarthy getting four for KKR. Against the RCB, Sunil Narine scalped two dismissals. Initial solid batting from Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57), Shardul Thakur (68), and Rinku Singh helped KKR reach 204/7 in 20 overs. (46). Thakur blasted nine fours and three sixes while playing in exceptionally impressive form. Karn Sharma and David Willey each claimed two wickets for RCB in the meanwhile.
It was Eden Gardens’ first IPL game in four years, and it was a lopsided contest. After recovering from a situation where everyone had given up but Thakur, KKR easily won by 81 runs. Check out Monga’s account from the game today, in which RCB went from 44 for 0 to 61 for 5. As Raghav, Thilak, and Monga sign off on our behalf, that is all we have to say for now. Until tomorrow, good night.
Shardul Thakur wins Player of the Match for swinging the match in his favour with 68 off 29: Even I am unsure of its origin. Everyone would have concluded that we were having trouble based on the scorecard. But your unconscious mind has the upper hand. At a higher level, you also need to have certain skills, but we also put a lot of effort into our net work. The throwdowns are performed by the coaching staff, and range-hitting is a possibility. And you are aware that the pitches always favour the batting. Suyash bowled quite well, and we are familiar with Sunil and Varun’s abilities. They have fun and score runs. This day was ideal.
Nitish Rana, the captain of KKR, said, “If you look at the last game, there were positives; we were still in it even after falling behind by seven. Even today, we broke down, and Gurbaz deserves praise. Additionally, Shardul Thakur’s inning was incredible! Shardul will be discussed, but Rinku held one end up as we had intended. We always intended to avoid providing RCB batters with pace throughout the middle overs. Such batsmen were struck by excellent balls bowled by Suyash in his debut game. Even we don’t know him very well yet! He supports him. He was always going to be added if we required a third spinner, after all.”
