We were pretty average with the bat: Faf du Plessis

The game began well for Royal Challengers Bangalore, as David Willey took a couple of wickets with the new ball. In fact, they had Kolkata Knight Riders down and out at 89/5 with no recognized batter in the dugout. But, Shardul Thakur had different plans. He shared a 100 run stand with Rinku Singh, and also scored his maiden fifty in the process. 

The 103-run stand between Rinku and Shardul took KKR to 204, but on a very good, very true surface, the target was by no means out of RCB's reach. However, a listless showing with the bat saw RCB get bowled out for 123, with the KKR spinners running riot.

Post the game, a defeated Faf du Plessis admitted that his side conceded 25 runs too many to start off with. 

"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," Faf du Plessis said at the post-match presentation.

If it was the "Lord" with the bat, it was Varun Chakaravarthy with the ball. He spun a web around the RCB batters, who seemed clueless against him. He was ably supported by the veteran, Sunil Narine, and the debutant, Suyash Sharma. He ended the game with a 4-fer and took the key wickets of Faf and Maxwell amongst others.

"They got on top of us, with Narine and Chakaravarthy, they put the squeeze on us really well. Because that's the nature of leg spinners or mystery spinners. It was still a good wicket, our batting was very average and even when we lose games like these we need to ensure that we get close to the target, at least around 160 tonight."

Coming off a loss, KKR would have wanted to secure a win here to gain some momentum. More so because this was their first game at Eden Gardens in over four years. They did just that, and skipper Nitish Rana, who promised to bounce back post the Punjab loss, was delighted with how his side fared.

"In the previous match, there were a lot of positives. We were seven down but still we fought," Rana said.

"Gurbaz played a brilliant knock at the top of the order and Thakur changed the complexion of the game. Credit should also be given to Rinku as he played second fiddle to Thakur and paced his innings well."

KKR took some great tactical calls, including bombarding the RCB batters with spin. And it worked like a charm. Their spinners took nine wickets between them, the highest ever tally in a single innings in IPL's 15-year history.

"We had always planned not to give RCB batters pace in the middle overs. Suyash, playing his first match, bowled brilliant balls to such batters. He backs himself, so it was always our plan to add him if we needed a third spinner," Nitish added

Kolkata next travel to Ahmedabad to face the defending champions, Gujarat Titans, in a noon game on the 9th April. Bangalore, meanwhile, will come back home to play Lucknow Super Giants on April 10.