Sports
Shardul and spinners dismantle Royal Challengers Bangalore
Eleven-and-a-half overs into Kolkata Knight Riders’ return to Eden Gardens, it seemed they were looking at a long, painful IPL ahead. Having lost the first match, they were 89 for 5. Andre Russell had got out for a golden duck. Shardul Thakur nearly became Karn Sharma’s hat-trick victim, but then fashioned one of the remarkable IPL turnarounds.
Thakur’s 68 off 29 – second-highest score for a No. 7 in the IPL – took KKR to 204 – the highest total for a team five down for less than 100. It was still probably just a par score with small boundaries and a quick outfield. It looked so when Faf du Plesis and Virat Kohli gave Royal Challengers Bangalore a flying start, but the two mystery spinners, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy ran through their batting to give them a reality check in an IPL they start as one of the favourites.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 204 for 7 (Thakur 68, Gurbaz 57, Willey 2-16) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 123 (du Plessis 23, Varun 4-15, Suyash 3-30) by 81 runs