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Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 81 runs on Thursday thanks to spinners (nine wickets) after half-centuries from Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57 runs) and Shardul Thakur (68 runs). KKR’s Honor Shahrukh Khan also reached Eden Gardens to watch the match.
With Thakur’s 103-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Rinku Singh (46 runs), KKR scored a mammoth score of 204 for seven wickets. Then KKR did not allow RCB to build any partnership by trapping their spinners Varun Chakraborty (4/15), Sunil Narine (2/16) and Suyash Sharma (3/30) in the spin, which helped the team in 17.4 overs. Got limited to 123 runs.
‘Impact player’ Suyash Sharma impressed in his debut. The leg-spinner from Delhi took two wickets in his second over as RCB were 86 for six in the 13th over and were on the brink of a big defeat with only a formality left. Earlier, Virat Kohli (21 runs) and Faf Duplesey (23 runs) got RCB off to a good start.
Kohli reached the very first ball for a four. But both were bowled in the same manner in the fifth and sixth overs respectively. Narayan uprooted Kohli’s off stump, which was celebrated by the audience. Mystery spinner Chakraborty got his team another important wicket in the form of Duplesey. Due to this, the team’s score in Powerplay was 50 runs for two wickets.
Chakraborty, showing the magic of his spin, increased the problem of RCB by dismissing Glenn Maxwell (05) and Harshal Patel (00) in the eighth over. Shahbaz Ahmed was then dismissed trying to sweep Narine’s ball, due to which RCB had lost five wickets for 61 runs in nine overs. Only one wicket remained in the name of the fast bowler in the match, that of Michael Bracewell (19 runs) who was dismissed by Thakur.
At the same time, the century partnership for the sixth wicket in 47 balls between KKR Thakur and Rinku reached close to 200 runs while the score was 89 for five in the 12th over. Playing the role of a troubleshooter, Thakur hit nine fours and three sixes in his 29-ball innings and scored his first half-century in the IPL. Apart from these three batsmen, none of the KKR players reached double digits. Gurbaj faced 44 balls in which six fours and three sixes were hit.
Rinku also played well with Thakur, hitting two fours and three sixes in 33 balls, including a 101 meter long six. For RCB, David Willey (one maiden, two wickets for 16 runs) and Karn Sharma (two wickets for 26 runs) gave double blows to KKR in one over but the team’s bowlers could not control Thakur’s innings.
After being invited to bat, Gurbaj and Venkatesh Iyer (03) came out to open the innings at their home ground. Bollywood star and KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan was also present at the packed Eden Gardens stadium to encourage his team. In an attempt to bat fast, Gurbaz hit two fours in the third over on Mohammad Siraj (one wicket for 44 runs), which increased the team’s score by 14 runs.
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