Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) had an unlucky day at home in Eden Gardens on Tuesday, April 16, as despite posting 223 runs on the board, they ended up on the losing side against Rajasthan Royals (RR).
RR captain Sanju Samson had won the toss and chosen to field first. Thanks to Sunil Narine’s maiden T20 century, in which he scored 109 in 56 balls with 6 sixes and 13 fours, helped KKR post 223/6 in 20 overs. Angkrish Raghuvanshi (30) and Rinku Singh (20*) also contributed to the huge total.
Jos Buttler, along with Riyan Parag (34) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (19) helped RR post 100 runs in 8.2 overs. But then RR lost quite a few wickets in a hurry, leaving them 121/6 at one stage.
Rovman Powell then provided some relief in the pressure with 26 in 13 balls. But the majority of the chase was shouldered by Jos Buttler, who came to bat as an impact sub. Buttler took the chase to the final over and won the game for RR with 2 wickets to go.
Buttler remained unbeaten on 107 in 60 balls, with 6 sixes and 9 fours, as RR equaled their own record of highest chase ever in IPL.
After the match, KKR co-owner Shah Rukh Khan made his way into the field and hugged not only the KKR players but also the RR players. He saw Buttler sitting on the ground and walked towards him. As Buttler began to stand up, Shah Rukh gestured for him to keep sitting. The two shared an embrace afterwards.
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In the KKR dressing room after the match, Shah Rukh Khan gave an encouraging speech to his players and also had a special message for former captain and now mentor Gautam Gambhir. The co-owner tried to lift the spirits of the Knight Riders after their agonizing defeat.
Shah Rukh Khan also urged mentor Gautam Gambhir to not lose hope, saying that the Knight Riders were playing consistently good cricket and they would recover from Tuesday's defeat, sooner rather than later.
"There are days in our lives, in sports especially when we don't deserve to lose. And then are days when we don't deserve to win. But days are like that which turns things around. Today, we didn't deserve to lose, all of us played extremely well.
We have to be very, very proud of ourselves. Please don't feel sad or down. Feel as happy as we feel whenever we come to this changing room and we are on a high. Maintain the high. The main thing is the energy in all of us. We have lovely energy here. Personally, also, everybody is bonding together. So please continue doing so,” Shah Rukh said in a video shared by KKR on X.
"GG (Gautam Gambhir), you don't feel down. We would all be bouncing back. It's god's plan for today. As Rinku says, we will be back with a better god's plan. Thank you everyone, god bless you all," he added.
