In a contest which was on the edge for most of its runtime, a 87 run stand between David Miller and Vijay Shankar gave the Gujarat Titans victory over the Knights at the Eden Gardens.
Put into bat after a rain delay of 45 minutes, the Knights 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 us to the 180 mark which was just about par on a batter friendly wicket.
In the defence, Andre Russell got the wicket of Saha early to get the Knights into the contest. However, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya then put on a brisk 50 run stand to steady the ship for the Titans. Harshit Rana, the speedster who started his first game for the Knights this season then picked up the crucial wicket of Hardik and minutes later Narine dismissed Gill leaving the Knights at 93/3 after 11.2 overs. The Knights were successful in tightening the screws around this period, but a late surge from Miller and Shankar got the Titans home with 13 balls and 7 wickets to spare.
Speaking after the match, Skipper Rana rued the missed opportunities in the field which could have made a difference to how things panned out. The skipper said that the Knights needed 20-25 more on this wicket which had very little for the bowlers.
The Knights will next travel to Hyderabad to face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Thursday.
