IPL 2023, KKR vs RCB | Who said what ft. Nitish Rana, Faf du Plessis
After rain wiped out the possibility of their win in the first match, Kolkata made sure that they will earn their first victory of the IPL 2023 against Bangalore with an 81-run victory. Nitish Rana lauded the fighting spirit shown by KKR while Faf du Plessis acknowledged Shardul Thakur’s knock.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) registered their first victory of the IPL 2023 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the most dramatic manner thanks to Shardul Thakur’s batting skills. RCB opted to bowl first after winning the toss and they had reduced the opposition to 89/5 at one point despite Rahmanullah Gurbaz scoring a half-century. It looked like they were on verge of being bundled out on a low total but Shardul Thakur played a sensational knock of 68 runs from 29 balls.
Coming to chase in the second innings, RCB never looked comfortable as they lost wickets at regular intervals. The batters had no answers to a fine spell of spin bowling from the trio of Varun Chakaravarthy, Suyash Sharma, and Sunil Narine. Chakaravarthy was the highest wicket-taker with four wickets and they skittled out the opposition on 123 as a result.
Reflecting on the result, KKR skipper Nitish Rana praised the fighting spirit shown by the side despite of facing a tough situation at one point in time.
In the previous match, there were a lot of positives. We were seven down but still we fought. Today we showed great fight. Gurbaz played a brilliant knock at the top of the order and Thakur changed the complexion of the game. Credit should also be given to Rinku as he played second fiddle to Thakur and paced his innings well. Umesh and Southee started decently with the ball. Then, our spinners bowled really well. Taking wickets regularly was great for us. Suyash is a confident young man and he has belief in himself. He made his chance count and it was great to see him bowl that way.
Faf du Plessis admitted that RCB let away a few extra runs even after dismissing half of the opposition inside 100 runs. He also explained that the performance of batters was average and it needs to be improved.
We had set it up nicely with the ball, probably at 100/5 around 13 overs, we kind of gave away 20-25 runs extra on that wicket. Shardul played incredibly well, he took the game away from us and KKR's leg-spinners bowled brilliantly. They got on top of us, with Narine and Chakaravarthy, they put the squeeze on us really well. Because that's the nature of leg spinners or mystery spinners. It was still a good wicket, our batting was very average and even when we lose games like these we need to ensure that we get close to the target, at least around 160 tonight.
Shardul Thakur, who received the Player of the Match stated that the hard work in the nets and conditions helpful for batting helped him build a game-winning knock in the end.
I don't even know where it came from but looking at the scorecard at that time, everyone would have thought we are struggling. But your subconscious mind takes over. You also have to have skills to do that at the higher level, but we also work hard in the nets. There is a period where we can slog it in the nets. Coaching staff do the throwdowns, and give us the option of range-hitting. And you know the pitches - they always suit the batsmen, don't they?
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