Kolkata: In a contest which was on the edge for most of its runtime, an 87 run stand between David Miller and Vijay Shankar gave the Gujarat Titans victory over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens.
Put into bat after a rain delay of 45 minutes, Kolkata got off to a steady start courtesy a blinder from Rahmanullah Gurbaz who replaced Jason Roy in the XI, owing to the latter suffering back spasms before the game.
Making the most of the opportunity, Gurbaz lit up the Eden Gardens finding the boundaries at will in his best ever IPL score 81(39). A late cameo from birthday boy Andre Russell 34(19) took Kolkata to the 180 mark which was just about par on a batsman friendly wicket.
In the defence, Russell got the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha early to get Kolkata into the contest.
However, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya then put on a brisk 50 run stand to steady the ship for Gujarat. Harshit Rana, the speedster who started his first game for Kolkata this season then picked up the crucial wicket of Hardik and minutes later Sunil Narine dismissed Gill leaving Kolkata at 93/3 after 11.2 overs.
Kolkata were successful in tightening the screws around this period, but a late surge from Miller and Shankar got Gujarat home with 13 balls and 7 wickets to spare.
Speaking after the match, Skipper Nitesh Rana rued the missed opportunities in the field, which could have made a difference to how things panned out.
The skipper said that Kolkata needed 20-25 more on this wicket which had very little for the bowlers.
Kolkata will next travel to Hyderabad to face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday. (UNI)
