"We had set it up nicely but...."- Faf du Plessis highlights where RCB lost the game vs KKR

The ninth game in the 16th edition of the Indian Premier League saw a complete turn around of the fortunes. It was the game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians at the Eden Gardens. RCB entered the game as favourites and was leading the charge in the first half of the first inning.

But an unexpected inning from the bat of Shardul Thakur totally blew them away. The all-rounder played a brilliant inning under pressure and smashed a 20-ball fifty, which is the fastest by any Indian batter in the IPL 2023. KKR was struggling at 89/5 in 11.3 overs at one stage, with all the big names back in the hut.

But then, Thakur added a match-winning partnership for the 6th wicket with Rinku Singh of 103 runs off just 45 balls. KKR posted a big total of 204/7 in their 20 overs. Thakur played a blinder of 68 off 29 balls, with nine fours and three sixes, while Rinku made 46 off 33.

That target proved to be more than enough for the RCB in the end. Everyone expected Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli to give the same start that they gave against MI in the last match. In fact, both batters added 44 runs for the first wicket. But that was the biggest partnership in the game.

Once that was broken, RCB had a cluster of wickets and got dismissed for 123 runs in 17.4 overs, losing by 81 runs. After the loss, the RCB skipper said that they had a batting failure that cost them the game.

Du Plessis said, "We had set it up nicely with the ball, probably at 100/5 around 13 overs, we kind of gave away 20-25 runs extra on that wicket. Shardul played incredibly well, he took the game away from us and KKR’s leg-spinners bowled brilliantly. It was still a good wicket, our batting was very average."

The loss against KKR is a wakeup call for RCB, as they have slipped to 7th place on the table. Now they will face Lucknow Super Giants on Monday, April 10 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.