Kolkata Knight Riders vs Gujrat Titans Highlights: Gujarat Titans beat Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League match at Eden Gardens on Saturday. Invited to bat, young Afghanistan keeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz slammed 81 off 39 balls but KKR managed a below-par score of 179 for 7.
Gurbaz hit seven sixes and five fours in his scintillating knock while ‘birthday boy’ Andre Russell (34 off 19 balls) also used the long handle to good effect towards the end. GT chased down the target with 13 balls to spare, reaching 180 for 3 in 17.5 overs. Vijay Shankar remained not out on 51 while Shubman Gill and David Miller contributed 49 and 32 not out respectively.
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Match EndedIndian Premier League, 2023
Kolkata Knight Riders
179/7 (20.0)
Gujarat Titans
180/3 (17.5)
Match Ended ( Day – Match 39 )
Gujarat Titans beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 7 wickets
At the pitch after toss, KKR's captain Nitish Rana said, “We would have batted first, DLS could come into the equation, but we would still have batted first. There are always areas where we can improve, we have had some forced changes – Jason Roy has a back issue, he's replaced by Gurbaz. Harshit Rana replaces Umesh Yadav.”
Eden Gardens has recorded the highest average first-innings score of 222 among all the IPL venues, based on the three matches played so far this season. Despite the favorable batting conditions, spin bowlers have managed to take 21 wickets at an economy rate of 8.7, which is better than the 10.9 rate for pace bowlers. Additionally, spin bowlers have a season-best strike rate of 15.6, indicating that they have been more effective than pacers at this ground during this IPL season.
It is raining in Kolkata and it is likely to delay the start of the match. The pitch was covered right after the toss took place. Gujarat has elected to bowl first after winning the toss.
Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Abhinav Manohar, Hardik Pandya (C), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little
Kolkata Knight Riders: Jagadeesan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (WK), Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (C), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Shardul Thakur, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Hardik Pandya's Gujarat Titans win the toss and opt to bowl first.
Kolkata Knight Riders: N Jagadeesan (WK), Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana (C), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, David Wiese, Vaibhav Arora, Umesh Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Suyash Sharma, Mandeep Singh, Litton Das, Anukul Roy, Kulwant Khejroliya, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Shardul Thakur, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Harshit Rana, Aarya Desai
Gujarat Titans: Wriddhiman Saha (WK), Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya (C), Vijay Shankar, David Miller, Abhinav Manohar, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Mohammed Shami, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little, Dasun Shanaka, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Srikar Bharat, Shivam Mavi, Jayant Yadav, Sai Sudharsan, Alzarri Joseph, Pradeep Sangwan, Matthew Wade, Odean Smith, Darshan Nalkande, Urvil Patel, Yash Dayal
Hello and welcome to the live blog of the 39th IPL match. Gujarat Titans will be facing Kolkata Knight Riders at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. The match will start at 3.30 pm IST while the toss will take place at 3 pm IST.