In the 9th match of the TATA IPL 2023, Kolkata Knight Riders faced off against Royal Challengers Bangalore. KKR emerged victorious by a whopping 81 runs, thanks to the incredible bowling performance by their spin trio - Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, and debutant Suyash Sharma.
After being put in to bat, KKR found themselves in a spot of bother at 89/5. However, a counter-attacking knock by Shardul Thakur (68 off 29) followed by well-calculated innings from Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57 off 44) and Rinku Singh (46 off 33) helped them post a formidable total of 204/7.
Chasing a mammoth target of 205, RCB's openers, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis, got off to a flying start. However, KKR's Nitish Rana brought Sunil Narine into the attack, and he dismissed Kohli for 21 (18) and gave away just three singles. In the next over, Chakravarthy got rid of Du Plessis, and the introduction of spin proved to be the turning point for KKR. RCB reached 50/2 at the end of the Powerplay.
Chakravarthy struck twice in one over as he knocked back Glenn Maxwell's off-stump with a googly and disturbed the furniture again a ball later as he made Harshal Patel chop one onto the stumps. The RCB collapse continued as Narine sent back Shahbaz Ahmed and Shardul Thakur's golden arm struck to remove Bracewell.
RCB sent their Impact Player, Anuj Rawat, to bat at No.8. However, it was Suyash Sharma who made an impact on his debut as he picked up two wickets in an over. He had Rawat and Dinesh Karthik caught at short third man to reduce RCB to 86/8. Sharma also picked up his third wicket by having Karn Sharma caught at first slip after a successful review. He finished with superb figures of 3/30 on debut.
David Willey and Akash Deep then cracked a few boundaries, but Chakravarthy came back to wrap up the RCB innings on 123 with a brilliant caught & bowled of Akash Deep.
Earlier, RCB captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bowl. They made one change to the side, as David Willey replaced the injured Reece Topley. KKR made one change as well, as Venkatesh Iyer replaced Anukul Roy. Willey was brilliant in the first six overs of the first innings when KKR was batting with figures of 3-1-9-2, but Shardul Thakur's outstanding innings helped KKR reach a massive total of 204/7.
Kolkata Knight Riders will be thrilled with this victory as they bounced back after their loss to the Punjab Kings in the first match of the tournament. The spin trio of Chakravarthy, Narine, and Sharma was outstanding, and they will be looking to carry this momentum into their next match against Gujrat Titans.