The Hardik Pandya-led Gujarat Titans thrashed Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets at the Eden Gardens of Kolkata. After the game, the KKR skipper Nitish Rana expressed his disappointment with the performance of the team, especially with the bowling.
After getting invited to bat first, the KKR side posted a target of 180 runs in 20 overs, courtesy of a fiery knock of 81 runs by Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Andre Russel, who featured in his 100th IPL match, also played a brilliant cameo as the home team scored 179/7 in 20 overs.
Later, openers Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha provided GT with a solid start. However, Russell gave KKR their first breakthrough as he dismissed Saha for just 10 runs in the fifth over. After losing Saha’s wicket, GT relied on Gill and Hardik for stable innings, and the visitors were 52/1 after six overs.
Harshit Rana picked his first wicket of the game as he removed the GT captain for 26 in the 11th over. Sunil Narine later on, provided KKR with a big breakthrough as he removed the well-settled Shubman Gill for 49. Gill tried to go for a six but ended up giving a catch to Russell at the mid-wicket.
After losing 3 wickets, David Miller (32* off 18) and Vijay Shankar (51* off 24) were playing as the last hope for GT. KKR bowlers failed badly to perform well with the ball as GT won the match by seven wickets with 13 balls to spare.
Nitish Rana Blamed The Bowlers For KKR’s Defeat
Meanwhile, after the match, Nitish Rana criticized the bowling performance of his side. He felt that Kolkata was 20-25 runs short of a competitive total and admitted that the team’s batting was sloppy, apart from the contributions of Gurbaz and Russell.
Nitish Rana stressed the need for partnerships in the middle overs to improve the team’s overall scored. He was particularly disappointed with the team’s bowling performance. He believed that the bowling was not up to the mark. He said:
“I think we were 20-25 runs short, up against top teams, we can’t be this sloppy with the bat. We didn’t get partnerships developing, other than Gurbaz and Russell, no one else, including me, scored. If we got a good partnership in the middle overs, we could have done better.”
He added: “In crucial games and against top oppositions, you need to do all the basics well in all the three departments of the game. The batting was ok today, but we didn’t bowl well. Need to do well in the small moments, bowl according to the plan and do the basics well.”
Here’s how the bowling spell of KKR looked like:
With this win, while Gujarat has climbed to the top of the IPL 2023 points table with 12 points, on the other hand, KKR is placed 7th in the points table.
