A sensational 68-run-knock from Shardul Thakur along with a brilliant 46-run cameo from Rinku Singh and all-round contributions from bowlers handed KKR a thumping 81-run victory over RCB in the ninth match of the Indian Premier League 2023 at the historic Eden Gardens on Thursday, April 6.
Speaking about the game, Faf & Co won the toss and opted to field first. David Willey drew first blood in the fourth over for RCB as he struck twice in two balls, cleaning up both Venkatesh Iyer and Mandeep Singh. Immediately after the powerplay, Michael Bracewell sent skipper Nitish Rana back to the hut, leaving KKR unsettled at 47/3 in the 7th over.
However, Rahmanullah Gurbaz kept the scoreboard ticking along with Rinku Singh as the duo added 42 runs for the fourth wicket. Gurbaz amassed 57 runs that included six fours and three maximums. Karn Sharma then removed Gurbaz and also Andre Russell on consecutive deliveries leaving them in deep trouble at 89/5 in the 12th over.
Then entered Shardul Thakur, who along with Rinku Singh took the game away from RCB, as the duo together took the bowlers to the cleaners, smacking them all across the ground with a 103-run partnership, helping KKR post a massive total of 204/7 in 20 overs.
Thakur amassed 68 runs off just 29 deliveries that included 12 boundaries. He also registered the joint-fastest fifty of the Indian Premier League 2023 and equalled Jos Buttler.
In response to the target of 205, RCB openers started the chase with a bang as they toyed with Tim Southee all around the ground, scoring 23 runs in his over. When the opening partnership looked threatening at 44/0 in 4.4 overs, it was Sunil Narine who cleaned up Kohli.
In the very next over, Varun Chakravarthy knocked over Faf with another beauty. From thereon KKR went berserk as they piled up wickets at regular intervals leaving RCB clueless. Spinners together picked up nine wickets to help KKR beat RCB by a huge margin of 81 runs. Suyash Sharma was impressive on his debut as he picked up three wickets for 30 runs in his four-over spell.
Meanwhile, let us look at the stats and numbers from the game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore:
2 – Andre Russel became the second batter after Chris Gayle to be dismissed for a duck in his 100th IPL game.
1 – Shardul Thakur scored the joint-fastest fifty off 20 balls in IPL 2023 to equal Jos Buttler, who recorded the same against SRH.
1 – Sunil Narine became the first player to represent KKR in 150 IPL games.
2 – Shardul Thakur registered the joint-second highest score while batting at the number 7 position along with Dwayne Bravo. Russell tops the list with 88* that came against CSK at Chennai in 2018.
4 – Shardul Thakur and Rinku Singh became the fourth pair to record century partnerships for the sixth wicket or below.
12 – Spinners took 12 wickets in this game – the most number of wickets taken by spinners in an IPL game. The previous best was 11.
Most wickets taken by spinners in an IPL Match
12 – KKR vs RCB at Eden Gardens 2023
11 – KKR vs PBKS at Eden Gardens 2012
11 – KKR vs DC at Eden Gardens 2018
11 – CSK vs DC at Chennai 2019
103 – Shardul Thakur and Rinku Singh (103) registered the highest 6th wicket partnership at the Eden Gardens, bettering the previous best of 73 between Sourav Ganguly and Angelo Matthews against KKR.