NEW DELHI: Star all-rounder Shardul Thakur on Thursday slammed joint-fastest fifty of the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to power Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to an imposing 204/7 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.
Thakur, who matched Jos Buttler's 20-ball fifty against Sunrisers Hyderabad - fastest of this season, played a fine counter-attacking knock of 68 runs that came in 29 balls.
This was Thakur's maiden fifty in the IPL and it included six fours and three maximums. Prior to Thakur, Rahmanullah Gurbaz stood tall amid the ruins with a maiden IPL fifty to take KKR out of the trouble.
On a day explosive KKR batter Andre Russell fell for a golden duck, Gurbaz (57; 44b) laid the foundation before Thakur showed his mettle as a power hitter to take them past 200-mark after RCB opted to bowl.
First, it was the Afghanistan recruit who revived their fortunes from a sloppy start, before Thakur came in at No 7 to give the team a final flourish in an entertaining 103-run (47b) sixth wicket partnership with Rinku Singh (46; 33b).
The duo lit up the show after Karn Sharma gave a double blow claiming Gurbaz and Russell off successive deliveries in the 12th over.
On a pitch that had true bounce and carry, David Willey exposed KKR's fragile top-order, when the England left-arm pacer knocked over Venkatesh Iyer (3) and Mandeep Singh (0) off successive deliveries inside the powerplay.
Promoted to open, Venkatesh looked out of sorts and was done in by a sharp incoming delivery that had low bounce, while Mandeep was clueless to an away going delivery.
It turned from bad to worse for KKR when a reverse-sweeping Nitish Rana (1) got out following a good review from RCB in the very first ball after powerplay.
KKR looked in trouble at 47/3 but Gurbaz led the charge against the 'local' Bengal pacer Akash Deep, pulling him for a six before collecting back-to-back boundaries. Overall, he hit six fours and three sixes.
Gurbaz took a review to overturn an LBW decision on 30 and raced to a 38-ball fifty with a powerful sweep over the long leg boundary.
Thakur then took Akash Deep to cleaners in his knock studded with nine fours and three sixes.
Apart from Willey (4-1-16-2), none of the RCB bowlers failed to impress and Akash Deep conceded 30 runs from his two overs. Siraj also looked wayward and returned with 1/44 from his four overs.
They also leaked 23 runs in extras.
(With PTI inputs)
