Royal Challengers Bangalore suffered a massive 81-run defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Thursday, with Faf du Plessis’ side throwing away the resulting from a winning position.
RCB had reduced KKR to 89/5 courtesy of David Willey’s fiery opening spell however Shardul Thakur’s partnership with Rinku Singh proved to be the game-changer for the home side.
Thakur and Rinku helped the Bengaluru-based franchise cross the 200-run mark and they posted a total of 204/7. Virat Kohli and Du Plessis began the chase really well as they stitched together an opening partnership of 44 runs before Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine ran through the RCB batting lineup that folded for a paltry 123 runs.
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Reflecting on his side’s defeat, the Proteas legend admitted that they did not bat well and allowed KKR to come back into the match even though the home side had half of their batters back in the dugout.
“We had set it up nicely with the ball, probably at 100/5 around 13 overs, we kind of gave away 20-25 runs extra on that wicket. Shardul played incredibly well, he took the game away from us and KKR’s leg-spinners bowled brilliantly," Du Plessis told the broadcasters in his post-match interview.
He continued, “They got on top of us, with Narine and Chakaravarthy, they put the squeeze on us really well. Because that’s the nature of leg spinners or mystery spinners."
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“It was still a good wicket, our batting was very average and even when we lose games like these we need to ensure that we get close to the target, at least around 160 tonight," added the 38-year-old.
After a scintillating start to their IPL 2023 campaign with a commanding 8-wicket win over Mumbai Indians, the Bengaluru-based franchise were given a harsh reality check by the Knight Riders.
As a result, RCB slumped to seventh place in the IPL 2023 points table following their defeat, whereas the two-time IPL champs jumped to third place.
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Next up for the Royal Challengers will be a meeting against Lucknow Super Giants on April 10 whereas KKR will take on league leaders Gujarat Titans on April 9.
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