The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 was witness to an entertaining match on Thursday as Kolkata Knight Riders clashed against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens. Giong into the match, the odds were in favour of the Faf du Plessis-led RCB as they had beaten Mumbai Indians in their first match. KKR, on the other hand, were coming into the match after a loss to Punjab Kings. However what happened, was the exact opposite. Batting first KKR notched a huge total of 204/7 despite being 89/5 at one stage. Though much was expected from RCB's chase, KKR spinners struck at regular intervals as RCB lost the match by big margin.
However, one KKR batter who came under fire was Mandeep Singh. The No. 3 KKR batter didn't leave a big mark as he was dismissed for a duck. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was not impressed as Mandeep has not been able to perform according expectations in the past IPLs too.
"He finds a franchise every time but he hasn't done much," Sunil Gavaskar said about the KKR batter.
Talking about the match, Rahmanullah Gurbaz stood tall amid the ruins with a maiden IPL fifty before Shardul Thakur's counter-attacking 68 from 29 balls propelled Kolkata Knight Riders to an imposing 204 for seven against Royal Challengers Bangalore here on Thursday.
On a day explosive KKR batter Andre Russell fell for a golden duck, Gurbaz (57; 44b) laid the foundation before Thakur showed his mettle as a powerhitter to take them past 200-mark after RCB opted to bowl.
First, it was the Afghanistan recruit who revived their fortunes from a sloppy start, before Thakur came in at No 7 to give the team a final flourish in an entertaining 103-run (47b) sixth wicket partnership with Rinku Singh (46; 33b).
With PTI inputs