Sunil Gavaskar didn’t mince his words as he came down hard on the KKR captain Nitish Rana after his dismissal due to a poor shot against RCB in IPL 2023.
The Kolkata Knight Riders produced a spectacular outing in the 2023 Indian Premier League match against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday night, as they registered a remarkable 81-run win in Kolkata. Riding on Shardul Thakur’s brilliant 68-run innings off just 29 deliveries, as well as key contributions from Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57) and Rinku Singh (46), KKR ended up with a strong total of 204/7 before running through the RCB batting order, bowling them out for just 123.
It was an all-out spin attack from the Knight Riders as their spinners dismissed 9 RCB batters – the most by a side’s spin-bowling attack in an IPL match. The trio of Sunil Narine (2/16), Varun Chakravarthy (4/15), and debutant Suyash Sharma (3/30) was too hot to handle for the RCB batters; however, things didn’t look as bright for the KKR early in the game when the side endured a top-order collapse itself. The Knight Riders were reeling at 89/5 with three of their top-four batters departing in single-digit scores.
While Venkatesh Iyer (3) and Mandeep Singh (0) departed off successive balls in the fourth over, KKR skipper Nitish Rana was also dismissed right after the powerplay. Rana attempted a reverse-sweep against Michael Bracewell in the very first ball after the powerplay, but couldn’t find the desired connection at all. The ball poped up after hitting the glove and Dinesh Karthik took an impressive catch behind the stumps.
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who was on-air during the dismissal, wasn’t too happy with Rana’s choice of shot; especially considering the game situation. The KKR were 47/2 after six overs and were in need of a partnership to stabilise the innings.
“What kind of shot was that from KKR captain? He didn’t connect at all. And as a captain, I think that shot was completely avoidable,” Gavaskar said on-air.
After the side lost the in-form Gurbaz on 57, it was Shardul Thakur who gave a much-needed boost to the KKR innings, and Rinku Singh also made a significant contribution as the two forged a 103-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
After the match, Gavaskar also lauded the KKR-RCB rivalry for taking the IPL to new heights.
“The rivalry of KKR and RCB has given a new height to IPL. The stories related to the rivalry between these two teams took the fandom to an extreme and this was the reason why IPL emerged as the biggest T20 leagues in the world in due course,” he said on Star Sports.
KKR vs RCB IPL 2023 Highlights: Kolkata Knight Riders win by 81 runs
Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore will lock horns in their second match of the Indian Premier League on Thursday. While RCB started their campaign on high-note, KKR suffered a loss in their opening match. The Nitish Rana-led team and Faf du Plssis-led team will want to register a win at the match which will be played at KKR’s homeground – Eden Gardens, Kolkata.