In their homecoming game, first match in Kolkata after almost four years, KKR registered a massive 81-run victory to jump to third in the early league standings.
IPL 2023 SCHEDULE<\/a> | IPL 2023 POINTS TABLE<\/a>
Defending a massive 205-run target, spinners Varun Chakaravarthy (4\/15), Sunil Narine<\/a> (2\/16) and debutant Suyash Sharma (3\/30) shared nine wickets to bowl out RCB for just 123 in 17.4 overs.
As it happened: KKR vs RCB<\/a>
Earlier asked to bat first, KKR were also in trouble when they lost half their side for 89 in the 12th over. Shardul Thakur (68 off 29) and Rinku Singh (46 off 33) then added 103 runs for the sixth wicket off 47 balls to push the total past 200-mark. KKR ended up posting a challenging 204\/7.
RCB batters then failed to cope with the spin onslaught and lost their in-form openers Virat Kohli<\/a> (21) and Faf du Plessis (23) inside Powerplay overs to Narine and Chakaravarthy respectively. Varun then rocked the RCB chase with a double-wicket 8th over, removing Glenn Maxwell and Harshal Patel.
Narine removed Shahbaz Ahmed in the ninth over to reduce RCB to 61\/5. The visitors failed to recover from there, giving the hosts a big win.<\/p>\n
Coming in at No 7, Thakur hammered the joint-fastest fifty of the season off 20 balls.
Thakur also took one wicket in his all-round show in KKR’s first home match after almost four years.
RCB were going great guns at 44 no loss in 25 balls in pursuit of the big chase before Narine triggered the collapse, foxing Kohli (21; 18b) with a beauty in his 150th IPL match.
Chakravarthy then gave a double blow dismissing Maxwell (5) and Patel (0) in three balls before ending with splendid figures of 3.4-0-15-4.
Thereafter, it was 19-year-old leg-spinner Suyash who made a dream debut after being included as an impact player in place of Venkatesh Iyer.<\/p>\n
The long-haired mystery spinner got two wickets in one over to have KKR reeling at 86\/8.
Suyash got his maiden wicket when he deceived Anju Rawat (1) with a tossed up delivery and in the space of three balls, he grabbed the prized-scalp of Dinesh Karthik (9) with a fuller delivery.
Fresh from his 82 not out against Mumbai Indians, Kohli teed off in style, scoring a boundary off the first ball of the innings against Umesh Yadav.
At 42 for no loss, the RCB opening duo looked set for another easy chase when Narine triggered the collapse, cleaning up Kohli with a beauty.
The star Indian completely missed the line as the ball sharply turned in to knock his stumps.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nEarlier, David Willey (4-1-16-2) and Karn Sharma (3-0-26-2) took wickets off successive deliveries in powerplay and middle overs respectively to give RCB the initial edge.
Willey exposed KKR’s fragile top-order, when the England left arm pacer knocked over Venkatesh Iyer (3) and Mandeep Singh (0) off successive deliveries.
But RCB frittered away the start with Rahmanullah Gurbaz first taking the charge against a wayward Akash Deep en route to his 44-ball 57, his maiden IPL fifty.
It turned from bad to worse for KKR when a reverse-sweeping Nitish Rana (1) got out following a good review from RCB in the very first ball after powerplay.
KKR looked in trouble at 47\/3 but Gurbaz led the charge against the ‘local’ Bengal pacer Akash Deep, pulling him for a six before collecting back-to-back boundaries.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nGurbaz took a review to overturn an LBW decision on 30 and raced to a 38-ball fifty with a powerful sweep over the long leg boundary.
But RCB again seized the momentum when the leg spinner Sharma had Gurbaz and Russell off back-to-back deliveries in the 12th over.
Thakur then took Akash Deep to cleaners in his knock studded with nine fours and three sixes.
Apart from Willey (4-1-16-2), none of the RCB bowlers failed to impress and Akash Deep conceded 30 runs from his two overs. Siraj also looked wayward and returned with 1\/44 from his four overs. They also leaked 23 runs in extras.
(With inputs from PTI)<\/span><\/div>\n