Shardul, spinners dismantle RCB

Press Trust Of India

Kolkata: Shardul Thakur smashed a counterattacking half-century before the spinners played their part to perfection as Kolkata Knight Riders made a memorable homecoming with an 81-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL here on Thursday.

KKR found themselves tottering for 89/5 before Thakur led a superb recovery with his 29-ball 68 to power his team to 204/7 after RCB opted to bowl. Coming in at No 7, Thakur hammered the joint-fastest fifty of the season off 20 balls and shared an entertaining 103-run wicket partnership off 47 balls with Rinku Singh (46 off 33).

In reply, RCB failed to last the distance and folded up for 123 in 17.4 overs with the trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and debutant Suyash Sharma sharing eight wickets between themselves. It was KKR’s first win of the season. 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 the Sunil Narine triggered the collapse, foxing Virat Kohli (21; 18b) with a beauty in his 150th IPL match. Chakravarthy then gave a double blow dismissing Glenn Maxwell (5) and Harshal 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 Sharma (4-0-30-3) who made a dream debut after being included as an impact player in place of Venkatesh Iyer. 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 space of three balls, he grabbed the prizedscalp 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