The 15th season of TATA IPL has started. Starting from March 31, 9 matches have been played so far in this season.
Thursday was the first encounter between Bangalore and Kolkata at the Eden Gardens, however, it was the second match for both KKR and RCB this season. In this match, Kolkata defeated Bangalore by 81 runs and registered their first win.
Prior to this, Kolkata had a match with Punjab on 1st of May, in which Punjab defeated KKR by 7 runs. And as for RCB, they clashed with Mumbai. In this match played on April 2nd the red's won by 8 wickets.
But in the match played between KKR and RCB last night, it felt like RCB is back on track.
KKR had set a target of 204 runs in front of RCB at the loss of 7 wickets, but the entire team of RCB was reduced to 123 runs in 18 overs. While, chasing the target of 204 runs, the batsmen of the RCB team appeared under pressure in front of the spin bowlers and lost wickets at regular intervals.
Shardul Thakur played an important role in Kolkata's victory, who scored 68 runs with his bat. After this victory, KKR's has come at number three in the points table.
For RCB, their opening performance was quite good. Virat Kohli and captain Faf du Plessis shared a 44-run partnership for the first wicket in 4.5 overs. Kohli, who scored 21 runs, was bowled by Sunil Narine. After this Varun Chakraborty took Faf du Plessis's wicket who sored 23 runs in 12 balls. After Kohli and Du Plessis gone the RCB batsmen went on to become victims of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakraborty and 'Impact Player' Suyash Sharma, who's playing the first match. As a result, Bangalore had lost nine wickets while scoring 96 runs only. Meanwhile, the partnership between Akash Deep and David Willis scored more than 100 runs for their team, sharing a 27-run partnership and saved RCB from an embarrassing defeat.
While after losing the toss Kolkata got off to bat first, their start was very bad. KKR lost its first three wickets whithin 47 runs. The first two wickets which fell were of Venkatesh Iyer and Mandeep Singh, both their wickets taken by David Willey. After which, Nitish Rana also gave his wicket to Michael Bracewell leaving opener Rahmanullah Gurbaj alone to score for the team. Gurbaj scored a total of 57 runs for kkr with the help of 6 fours and 3 sixes but, was also dismissed by Karn Sharma. And thus, somehow Kolkata scored 89 runs for the loss of five wickets.
But after Russell's departure, when Shardul Thakur took over the innings, then there was excitement in the audience. Shardul looked in an aggressive mood from the beginning and he completed his fifty in just 20 balls. As soon as Shardul joined Rinku Singh, his batting came to life and he also started hitting shots. There was a partnership of 103 runs in 45 balls for the sixth wicket between Rinku and Shardul. Shardul played an inning of 68 runs in 29 balls, which included 9 fours and three sixes.
GAMETHON