Kolkata Knight Riders had entered Saturday’s match against Gujarat Titans in IPL 2023 at Eden Gardens on the back of an optimistic 21-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
But all of that optimism evaporated completely as they lost to Gujarat by seven wickets. With the bat, Rahmanullah Gurbaz slammed a scintillating 39-ball 81 and Andre Russell smashed a 19-ball 34.
Apart from the duo collectively scoring 115 runs off 58 balls, no other Kolkata batter stepped up as they made only 179/7, something which captain Nitish Rana rued after the defeat.
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“I think we were 20-25 runs short. If we keep dropping catches against big teams, I do not think the result will be any different. No one apart from Gurbaz and Russell got going. There were not enough partnerships and had we had a partnership of 40-50 runs, the score could have been more,” he said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
Kolkata had kept Gujarat to 98/3 in 12 overs in defence of 179/6. But Vijay Shankar stepped up at the right time to overcome a scare in the middle overs and smash a blazing 51 off just 24 balls while sharing an 87-run partnership with David Miller to complete the chase with 13 balls to spare. Kolkata had also dropped Miller’s catch at 26, something which proved to be decisive.