Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), on Sunday, April 9, defeated Gujarat Titans (GT) by three wickets at the Narendra Modi Stadium after Rinku Singh pulled off a stupendous effort in the last over. The Titans needed 29 to defend in the last over, but Rinku hit Yash Dayal for five sixes in a row to take KKR home. The Titans got off to a brisk start, scoring 54 runs in the powerplay, although they lost the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha. After Saha departed, Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan put on 67 runs for the second wicket off 7.2 overs to lay the platform for the Titans. Sunil Narine separated the duo after getting rid of Gill, who scored 39 runs off 31 balls with five fours.
Sudharsan carried on with his impressive run of form after he scored 53 runs off 38 balls with three fours and two sixes. Suyash Sharma, who picked up three wickets on his IPL debut against the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), got the wicket of Abhinav Manohar, who was threatening to play some big shots.
But the Titans got the much-needed momentum from Vijay Shankar, who looked at his very best with the bat in hand. The veteran raced off to a half-century off 21 balls. Shankar stayed unbeaten on 63 runs off 24 balls with four fours and five sixes.
It was because of Shankar’s knock that helped the Titans go past the 200-run mark in their innings. After opting to bat first, GT scored 204 for the loss of four wickets. Narine was the pick of the KKR bowlers after he finished with figures of 4-0-33-3.
KKR got off to a rather sedate start as they scored 43 runs in the powerplay. Most importantly, they lost the crucial wickets of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and N Jagadeesan, who had replaced Mandeep Singh. But Venkatesh Iyer, who came in as an Impact Player for Suyash Sharma, kept KKR’s hopes alive with a half-century off 26 balls.
