Royal Challengers Bangalore stumble against Kolkata Knight Riders to register their first loss of IPL 2023

Despite a fine start to the game, the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) gave away plenty of runs with the ball in the last 10 overs which proved too much to chase down as the Faf du Plessis-led side fell to an 81-run loss against the hosts Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Thursday evening. 

On winning the toss, du Plessis opted to field first and his decision was vindicated by seamer David Willey, who came in place of Reece Topley and dealt a double whammy to put KKR straight under the pump. 

Willey knocked back Venkatesh Iyer (3) and Mandeep Singh’s (0) stumps off consecutive balls before Michael Bracewell removed KKR skipper Nitish Rana (1) on the first ball post the powerplay to push the hosts on the back foot. 

KKR opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57) combined with Rinku Singh (46) to put on a 42-run stand but once the former was removed and all-rounder Andre Russell (0) followed him a ball later, it seemed as if RCB were well in control to keep the batters under a par score. 

However, Shardul Thakur had other plans and smashed the RCB bowlers around at will, putting up a knock for the ages as his 29-ball 68 played a massive hand in KKR getting to a more than competitive total of 204/7 on the board. 

Rinku played the perfect anchor at the other end, and the duo stitched together a crucial partnership of 103 runs that completely changed the complexion of the game. 

Chasing a massive total, RCB got off to a flying start as Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis got in the groove early. However, once the spinners were introduced, things went south for the Challengers as Kohli (21) fell to Sunil Narine while Faf (23) crumbled in almost similar fashion against Varun Chakravarthy.

None of the other RCB batters managed to put up a fight against the KKR spinners as the trio of Narine, Chakravarthy and young debutant Suyash Sharma accounted for nine wickets, completely quashing any hopes of a comeback. 

Despite Willey (20*) and Akash Deep’s (17) late surge, RCB eventually fell well short of getting close to the finish line. RCB, though, will take heart from the fact that they will be back on home territory for their next game which will be against KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants on Monday, April 10.