Live Report - IPL 2023 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata

RCB had two different bowlers picking up two wickets in two balls. David Willey even converted that over into a maiden. KKR were 89 for 5 and their underwhelming top six was getting all kinds of unwanted attention.

Then out walked Shardul Thakur. He was nearly bowled off Karn Sharma's hat-trick ball. And having gotten that piece of luck, he just went berserk, scoring 68 in just 29 balls to launch an eye-watering assault of the RCB bowlers.

Faf du Plessis' side have been very poor at the death. Virat Kohli noted that in their last game as well, but that one they won. This one, they haven't.

KKR started their defence nervously, leaking boundaries to RCB's big name openers. Then on came Sunil Narine and everything changed.

Varun Charkravarthy found his old bite again, playing on a pitch that suits him to a T. He is best when the ball skids through off the pitch - not when its slow and turning. That's Eden and like he predicted it's become his happy place.

Then there was Suyash Sharma, a 19-year old playing his very first game of professional cricket, finished with 3 for 30 himself.

Varun Chakravarty 3.4-0-15-4; 13 dots out of 24 balls

Sunil Narine 4-0-16-2; 12 dots in 24 balls

Suyash Sharma 4-0-30-3; 11 dots in 24 balls
(in his very first game of professional cricket)

RCB 123 all out.

The 19-year old Impact Sub has got two wickets in five balls in his first ever game of representative cricket. And each time, he touches the KKR crest then spreads his hands out and does a "calm down" kind of gesture. Here's Sreshth Shah with a little bit of background on KKR's latest mystery spinner.

Suyash's elder brother was into cricket, and got dragged into it as a batter. Then he decided to do legspin to stand out. He has only played local tournaments and was spotted by the KKR scouts in Delhi. Now he's repaying their faith on the biggest stage.

Sreshth has more; we just want to whet your appetite before the main course.

Varun 3-0-13-3

Narine 3-0-9-2

RCB 69 for 5 in 10 overs. They need 136 off 60.

And in comes Suyash Sharma. 19 years old. We had him as a legspinner, but he too is a mystery spinner. His first two balls turned from left to right, looking from behind his bowling arm. His third went from right to left.

Came on within the powerplay and bowled Faf du Plessis

Then bowls one of the IPL's best spin-hitters Glenn Maxwell in his next over.

This is Varun at his best. Targeting the good length area. On and around off stump. Skidding balls through to try and hit the stumps.

RCB's funky idea of promoting Harshal Patel to get some quick runs - and also deepen their batting line-up doesn't work because Varun's mystery is back on in 2023.

And at the other end, Varun Chakravarthy takes out Faf du Plessis. This game has changed once again.

Varun has long been dreaming about being able to bowl at Eden Gardens. Not because it is the Eden Gardens but because it is a surface that doesn't turn.

Varun hates turn. He's a spinner. But he hates turn because he feels he can't control it. His whole game - because he just flicks the ball out of his fingers - is based around being quick through the air and keeping the stumps in play. It's why loads of his wickets have batters looking like they're late reacting to the ball. They just don't have time to adjust to the skid he gets off the pitch. And when you can skid the ball through off the pitch, the slightest deviation is enough.

Any more and it strays down leg or it gives room to free the arms.

This is why he was looking forward to playing at Eden. Because this pitch doesn't offer exaggerated help to spin. Just enough. For more on this topic, read my little brother Deivarayan Muthu's story

There are nerves in the KKR bowling, all of it because it is these two at the crease.

It didn't help that Umesh Yadav started with a long half-volley outside leg stump and got hit for four.

Tim Southee might have helped put them back on track, beating Virat Kohli's bat twice in the space of three balls. One of them was an absolute beaut too, leaving the batter dumbfounded even as he charged out to meet it. His second over though isn't so great. He's lost the sideways movement. Now RCB are lining him up

This is going to be a tough chase, but in Kohli and Faf, RCB have people who know just how to go about it. KKR will look an entirely different team as soon as they break this partnership.

He's a 19-year old legspinner on T20 debut. Replaces Venkatesh Iyer

KKR have a habit of turning the tables like this. They have the four biggest totals made in the IPL after being five down for less than 100.

There's this one, from 89 for 5 to 204 for 7, which is the highest in the tournament

Then there was the time when they were 31 for 5 against CSK in 2021 and went on to score 202

Then once again against CSK, they were 89 for 5 in 2018 and went on to score 202 for 6

And against Royals in 2020, they were 99 for 5 before finishing on 191 for 7

Excellent statting from our very own statsguru Shiva Jayaraman

vs Mumbai Indians
Over no. 17: 12 runs
Over no. 18: 10 runs and a wicket
Over no. 19: 16 runs
Over no. 20: 22 runs
Total: 60 off four overs

vs Kolkata Knight Riders
Over no. 17: 13 runs
Over no. 18: 15 runs
Over no. 19: 17 runs and a wicket
Over no. 20: 12 runs and a wicket
Total: 57 in four overs

RCB need to really look at their death bowling. KKR have come back from 89 for 5 to finish on 204 for 7. What an innings!

There's been half-volleys. There's been over-waist high full tosses which have been hit for six. There's been a skier landing in between two fielders. And all this is just the 17th and the 18th over.

KKR 175 for 5 on a pitch that had help for both spin and pace. Looks like dew might have set in now, helping the run-scoring.

Shardul Thakur is doing an excellent Andre Russell impression.

He's been in for just 20 balls, but he's already 51 not out! His first IPL fifty, and joint-fastest of the season along with Jos Buttler and he's got Eden roaring "KKR KKR KKR"

26 off 10 against spin. And 25 off 10 against fast bowling.

He's been happy to charge out at the spinners, on a pitch where it is turning. He has fully committed to the big shots, which is good thinking on a small ground. Sometimes Shardul plays cricket the way it's meant to be played. With pure freedom, instead of all this match-up and straight bats and caution.

Sometimes cricket is just going out there and having fun.

Sanjay Bangar, RCB head coach in a dugout interview, says

Reece Topley is out of the tournament; he's flying back home after injuring his shoulder while fielding in the last game. They will be seeking a replacement

Wanindu Hasaranga will be arriving on April 10th from New Zealand

Josh Hazlewood is expected back on April 14, and they hope he'll be able to play on April 17th

RCB ARE BACK ON TOP!

DRE RUSS IS OUT FOR A DUCK IN HIS 100TH IPL GAME.

Karn Sharma is the wicket-taker. Two in two balls for the legspinner, who came in for big praise from Virat Kohli after the last game, when he picked up 2 for 32 against Mumbai.

This is why legspinners are so badly sought after. Their stock balls are tricks. They make batters think they're hittable. They're hittable for all money. And then the ball dips and pitches at almost exactly the worst spot and they turn sometimes big, sometimes not so big, but always problematically. Suddenly your six ends up a catch at long-off. Russell hitting through the line, perhaps wanting to go down the ground, skews it to long-off instead.

All action cricket with KKR now 113 for 5 after 13 overs

Meanwhile, it takes until the last ball of the 11th over for a KKR batter not named Gurbaz to score a boundary. Rinku Singh pushes the fourth-wicket partnership to 40 off 29 and now they're even looking comfortable out there. Now Russell and Narine waiting in the wings can mean more.

KKR are reassessing here. And that may not be a bad thing.

There is help for both fast bowling - especially when you hit the pitch hard with cross-seam/wobble-seam balls. And now there is turn for the spinners as well.

Narine in these conditions can be a real handful. And RCB's big guns don't fancy facing Narine.

Maxwell, Kohli and du Plessis don't have great strike rates against Narine in the IPL. Maxwell's stands at 101.75 (58 off 57 balls), Kohli's at 103.06 (101 off 98) and du Plessis' at 80 (36 off 45 balls)

Getting to somewhere around 160 should be their target. Then if its Russell's day, they can go WAY higher

In this context, the innings that Gurbaz is playing right now is absolutely crucial. He's looked very busy in the middle. Not moving around the crease and premeditating busy but busy in the way that he presses right forward to full balls, but more impressively, he rocks back so quickly when its even slightly short. Gurbaz has loads of power. And that big backlift is perfect for flat-bat shots. But to make them both work optimally, his footwork has to be precise and it almost always has been. He's playing a gem of an innings.

All this is assuming dew doesn't mess up KKR's bowling later in the night.

... And now their batting allrounder is picking up wickets too. Michael Bracewell sends back the KKR captain. Nitish Rana falls to the reverse sweep, and DRS, for which Dinesh Karthik can take plenty of credit. He convinced Faf du Plessis to go for the review and now KKR are 47 for 3 in 6.1 overs. Rinku Singh at No. 5

There's bad luck and then there's this, playing your first game in four years in front of your beloved home crowd... and looking fairly helpless. Is KKR hamstringing themselves at the auction by making all those high cost trades coming back to haunt them?

But at the other end, David Willey castles Venkatesh Iyer. Plays completely outside the line of the ball angled into him from around the wicket. That's a poor shot brought on by the fact that he's only 3 off 6.

Mandeep Singh the new batter gets done by an absolute peach. A slightly - ever so slightly scrambled seam delivery - hits the deck and comes up with the upright seam pointing somewhere towards slip. That allows the good length ball to nip far enough away to beat the edge of the bat and crash into off stump. Mandeep, being new at the crease, was leg side of the ball and his feet weren't ready to move

KKR have an underwhelming top six. They don't have an opener they can bank on. They don't have a middle order bat who can marshall them in the middle overs. All they have is Andre Russell and he can't do it every single time. Shreyas Iyer's injury has come at a most inopportune time for them. Especially when they'll be playing their home games on a pitch that gives a little for both fast bowlers and spinners. That's why Willey struck here. The ball moved off the pitch both times.

RCB have adapted to this pitch very very quickly. They saw that it would offer enough to wobble seam balls and KKR's batting issues has helped them reap huge rewards.

Siraj, who is typically so so good with the new ball, has made his captain's life extremely hard.

He is bowling from the end where the offside boundary is tiny.

Faf has put all his deep fielders on the leg side.

That suggests a plan where the bowler needs to tuck the batter up. Gurbaz can be really dangerous when he gets to free the arms.

Siraj doesn't take any of that into account and bowls short and wide and once he gets whacked and the other time is arguably the better shot as Gurbaz waits for the ball, knowing full well all he has to do is make the slightest bit of contact, and place it to get reward.

Poor over from the RCB spearhead.

Venkatesh Iyer is back opening the batting for KKR. That means they have a right-left combination; in their last game they had the right-handed Mandeep opening with the right-handed Gurbaz.

This might be a response to the pitch in use being off centre, meaning one side of the ground is significantly smaller than the other (54m boundary). So a right-left combo comes in extremely handy.

It could be this, or it could be that V Iyer does his best work at the top of the order; that's where he had his breakthrough IPL season in 2021: 370 runs at 41.11 average and 128.47 strike rate

Minor confusion at the toss, with the match referee thinking it was won by KKR, when Faf called heads and it fell heads. "Its the accent. Little bit of misunderstanding," he says with a grin and then just as jovially bats away suggestions about RCB being favourites to win the title. Forced change with Topley injured, David WIlley comes in

KKR wanted to bowl as well, says Nitish Rana. The option to change teams based on the toss is very useful for a captain. One change, Anukul Roy is out, Venkatesh Iyer is in.

KKR: M Singh, R Gurbaz†, N Rana*, V Iyer, RK Singh, AD Russell, SN Thakur, SP Narine, TG Southee, UT Yadav, CV Varun
Subs: S Sharma, A Roy, V Arora, N Jagadeesan, D Wiese

RCB: V Kohli, F du Plessis*, KD Karthik†, GJ Maxwell, MG Bracewell, S Ahmed, HV Patel, DJ Willey, ADeep, M Siraj, KV Sharma
Subs: F Allen, S Yadav, S Prabhudessai, A Rawat

KKR's two talismans (talismen?) are looking at a couple of big milestones. Andre Russell will be playing his 100th IPL game. Sunil Narine his 150th. Here's a little snapshot of how important they've been to KKR courtesy our stats expert Sampath Bandarupalli

They are the top two wicket takers for KKR in the IPL

Russell hit 174 sixes for KKR in the IPL, exactly twice of the next best Narine has played for only KKR in the IPL so far.

Among the players to represent only one team in the IPL, Narine will be the third to complete 150 matches

KKR have won 39 out of 75 matches where both played together for KKR