IPL 2023: Thakur, Gurbaz, Rinku, spinners help KKR thrash RCB by 81 runs

In their first home game of IPL 2023 at a packed Eden Gardens Kolkata Knight Riders were in tatters at 895 in 113 overs Royal Challengers Bangalore had David Willey and Karn Sharma picking up two wickets in as many balls with many fearing an embarrassing defeat for KKRBut Shardul Thakur nearly got out on his first ball also the hattrick ball as the inside edge went past legstump slammed the jointfastest fifty of the season in 20 balls through his sensational 68 off 28 deliveries That stunning turnaround set the base for KKR to thrash RCB by 81 runs to get their first win of the tournamentRahmanullah Gurbaz dazzled in the start with a strokefilled 57 while Rinku Singh chipped in with a vital 46 apart from sharing an important 103run partnership off just 47 balls with Thakur to propel KKR to a mammoth 2047In reply Kolkatas three mystery spinners Varun Chakaravarthy 415 Sunil Narine 216 and debutant Suyash Sharma 330 took nine wickets between themselves to bamboozle the RCB batters and bowl them out for 123 in 174 oversGurbaz began by feasting on width or short balls from Mohammed Siraj and being quick in cutting him through backward point point and short third man for boundariesBut from the other end Willey rocked Kolkata by castling Venkatesh Iyer through the gate with a short delivery angled in from around the wicket On the very next ball he got a length ball to nip away to beat the outside edge of Mandeep Singh and crash into offstumpThere was no stopping Gurbaz though pulling Akash Deep over short fine leg for six followed by whacking Willey over the same region for four After Nitish Rana gloved a reverse sweep to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik off Michael Bracewell Gurbaz attacked him and Shahbaz Ahmed with his fierce sweeps last of which went for six to bring up his fiftyKarn then led Bangalores fightback with backtoback strikes in the 12th over Gurbaz reverseswept to short third man while Andre Russell holed out to longoff for a golden duck Then came Thakur and provided muchneeded momentum to Kolkatas innings hitting two fours and six off Akash before sweeping off KarnHe used his feet very well in slamming Bracewell for a brace of sixes over midwicket fence before flatbatting off Willey for a boundary Thakur brought up his maiden IPL fifty in 20 balls with a fierce pull in the gap between longon and deep midwicket off Harshal PatelRCBs death bowling woes came up to the fore yet again as full tosses including one above the waist and halfvolleys were being easily dispatched by Thakur and Rinku for boundaries Though Rinku gloved a bouncer from Harshal and Thakur pulled to midwicket off Siraj Umesh Yadav hit a four through midoff to ensure Kolkata crossed 200markVirat Kohli began the chase of 205 by clipping a halfvolley outside leg stump from Umesh for four and ended the opening over with another boundary slashed in the gap between third man and backward pointHe and Faf du Plessis hit Tim Southee for two fours and as many sixes each in the fourth over yielding 23 runs But from there the NarineChakaravarthySuyash annihilated the RCB challengeKohli played across the line against Narine but missed the ball and was castled through the gate in the fifth over In the next over du Plessis went for an expansive drive against a fuller ball from Chakravarthy but got an inside edge to his stumpsIn his next over Chakaravarthys quicker googly beat the inside edge of Glenn Maxwell to crash into the stumps Two balls later he ended Harshals promotion by extracting an inside edge to crash into the stumpsMore misery followed Bangalore as Shahbaz picked out the deep point with his reverse sweep off Narine as half the side was back in the hut in 85 overs Bracewell put up some resistance with two boundaries but gloved a pull off Thakur to diving short fine legImpact player Anuj Rawat tried to slogsweep against Suyash but found the short third man Three balls later Suyash struck again when Dinesh Karthik went for the loft but outside edge flew to short third manAlso readIPL 2023 RCB in tatters after KKRrsquos Shardul hits 68 off 29 ballsIn his next over Suyash had Karn sweeping to slip and got his wicket as replays showed a faint bottom edge Varun finished off the proceedings by keeping his eyes on the ball and running to midwicket to complete a stunning caught and bowled dismissal of AkashBrief ScoresKolkata Knight Riders 2047 in 20 overs Shardul Thakur 68 Rahmanullah Gurbaz 57 David Willey 216 Karn Sharma 226 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 123 all out in 174 overs Faf du Plessis 23 Virat Kohli 21 Varun Chakaravarthy 415 Suyash Sharma 330 by 81 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever