Century partnership between Shardul and Rinku
KKR crossed the 200-run mark after Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57 runs), a quick half-century from Shardul Thakur (68 runs) and his 103-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Rinku Singh (46 runs). KKR’s score was 89 for five in the 12th over, after which Thakur and Rinku brought the team close to 200 runs by sharing a century partnership for the sixth wicket in 47 balls. Thakur, playing the role of a troubleshooter, hit nine fours and three sixes in his 29-ball innings and scored his maiden half-century in the IPL. Shardul, who came out to bat at number 7, completed his half-century in just 20 balls. This is the joint fastest fifty of this season. Butler has also put fifty on 20 balls. Apart from these three batsmen, none of the KKR players reached double digits.
Gurbaj faced 44 balls which was studded with six fours and three sixes. Rinku also played well with Thakur, hitting two fours and three sixes in 33 balls, including a six of 101 metres. For RCB, David Willey (one maiden, two wickets for 16 runs) and Karn Sharma (two wickets for 26 runs) gave double blows to KKR in one over but the team’s bowlers could not control Thakur’s innings.
RCB stuck in spin
Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis once again gave RCB a stormy start. The team’s score was 42 runs in 4 overs. In the fourth over, both scored 23 runs against Tim Southee. But the match turned as soon as the spinners came. Sunil Narine bowled Virat (21) in the 5th over. Then Varun Chakravarthy removed du Plessis, Maxwell and Harshal Patel in his two overs. All three batsmen were bowled.
The mystery spin of Suyyash Sharma, who is making his IPL debut, was also seen. He dismissed Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat and Karn Sharma. Varun Chakraborty took his fourth wicket by dismissing Akash Deep as the last wicket. Sunil Narine also took two wickets while Shardul Thakur got a breakthrough.