The Kolkata Knight Riders had a tough start to their innings, losing five wickets to score only 89 runs, with Andre Russell getting out for a duck. However, Rahmanullah Gurbaz played an impressive knock of 57 off 44 balls and helped improve KKR’s situation. The real turnaround came when Shardul Thakur came in to bat and launched a ferocious counterattack against the bowlers. In the 19th over, he hit two fours and a six off Akash Deep, followed by a four off Karn Sharma’s delivery, and two consecutive sixes off Michael Bracewell’s. Thakur continued his blistering knock, achieving a 20-ball half-century, the joint-fastest of the season with Jos Buttler, with his sixth four off Harshal Patel’s bowling. By the end of the 17th over, KKR had reached 160/5. Thakur eventually fell for an incredible 68 off 29 balls, striking 9 fours and 3 sixes, taking KKR’s total past 200. Rinku Singh provided excellent support, scoring 46 off 33. Together, Thakur and Singh added 103 runs off just 45 balls for the sixth wicket. RCB’s bowling in the death overs was disappointing as they leaked 64 runs in the last five overs, and KKR finished their innings at 204 for 7.
RCB started off well with a solid partnership of 42 runs in the first four overs between Virat Kohli and Faf du Plesis. However, the momentum shifted when Nitish Rana introduced Sunil Narine into the bowling attack. Kohli attempted to flick a ball from Narine away from the off-stump and missed, resulting in the ball hitting the stumps and his dismissal. Varun Chakravathy’s three googlies across two overs caused trouble for RCB, with the RCB captain and Glenn Maxwell being bowled, and Harshal Patel falling victim to a similar delivery while attempting a big cover drive. As a result, RCB were struggling at 54 for 4. Shahbaz Ahmed tried to take risks to keep the chase going but ended up being caught at deep backward point while attempting a switch hit against Narine. Youngster Suyash Prabhudessai had a dream spell as he picked up three crucial wickets in one over, starting with the dismissal of Anuj Rawat who top-edged a slog sweep. He followed it up with the wickets of Dinesh Karthik and Karn Sharma, effectively ending RCB’s chase as they were nine down for 96. Varun returned to finish off the innings, taking a good diving catch off his own bowling to pick up his fourth wicket and bundle out RCB for just 123 in the 18th over.
In the end, KKR beat RCB by 81 runs, with Varun Chakravathy being the pick of the bowlers, taking four wickets for just 15 runs, and Suyash Prabhudessai impressing with three wickets in one over. Despite Virat Kohli and Faf du Plesis’ solid start, RCB couldn’t keep up with KKR’s massive total, as their batting order collapsed under the pressure of KKR’s bowling attack. It was an impressive victory for KKR, who will take a lot of confidence from this performance into their next game.
