KKR vs RCB Man of the Match IPL 2023: Who Won MOTM Award at the Eden Gardens Today?

It would be an understatement to say that Kolkata Knight Riders have turned things around in their second Indian Premier League 2023 Match against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Eden Gardens tonight. Playing at their home ground for the first time in almost four years, KKR didn’t disappoint thousands of fans (including co-owner Shah Rukh Khan and daugher Suhana Khan) who were in attendance.

Chasing a 205-run target, RCB were bundled out for 123 in 17.4 overs under shocking circumstances. The extent of shock went up to another level considering how they had chased down a 172-run target in 98 balls against Mumbai Indians at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

One can observe the visitors’ poor batting performance from the fact that former captain Virat Kohli (21) and captain Faf du Plessis (23), their opening batters, were their highest run-scorers tonight. Bangalore, who never looked to be in a position to seal this run-chase after losing Kohli and du Plessis inside the powerplay, made desperate changes to their batting order but to no effect.

Knight Riders’ spinners were a primary reason behind the downfall of Royal Challengers’ batters on Thursday. While Varun Chakravarthy was the pick of their bowlers with figures of 3.4-0-15-4, debutant spinner Suyash Sharma and veteran Sunil Narine also dismissed three and two batters respectively.

KKR vs RCB Man of the Match IPL 2023

With du Plessis winning the toss and opting to bowl first for the second time in a row, Kolkata looked out of sorts for a large part of their batting innings. It was only after Shardul Thakur‘s arrival at No. 7 that boosted the hosts out of nowhere.

A career-best knock saw the right-handed batter single-handedly turning the tables by scoring 68 (29) with the help of nine fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 234.48. Making the opposition’s bowlers look clueless, Thakur hit the ball to all parts of the ground in a game-changing 45-ball 103-run sixth-wicket partnership alongside Rinku Singh (46).

In addition to scoring a maiden T20 half-century, Thakur also picked a wicket in the two overs that he bowled to win the Player of the Match award.

“I don’t even know where it came from but looking at the scorecard at that time, everyone would have thought we are struggling. We work hard in the nets. But your subconscious mind takes over. You also have to have skills to do that at the higher level, but we also work hard in the nets. There is a period where we can slog it in the nets,” Thakur told Star Sports Network during the post-match presentation ceremony.