IPL 2018: Shah Rukh Khan congratulates Kolkata Knight Riders with an 'awesome' tweet

The Kolkata Knight Riders did not look a strong side heading into the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League. The franchise had a much smaller group of players this time and was without the services of their talisman Gautam Gambhir who had taken them to two IPL titles. The misery piled on when Mitchell Starc was ruled out due to injury. KKR had a new captain in Dinesh Karthik and he had a big task up his sleeve.

Long way to go

They are placed fourth on the points table with eight points from eight games. Andre Russell and Chris Lynn have made good contributions to the side and KKR must ensure that these two remain fit for the entire season. The franchise does not have good bench strength which is why they rely heavily on the XI that they put on the field. Shah Rukh Khan, co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders took to Twitter to congratulate his side after they beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets.

He tweeted: “Good team effort @KKRiders Happy to c @lynny50 come into runs. Well done @DineshKarthik to go with unchanged team. Robbie & Russel awesome.”

Match details

Interestingly, KKR had gone in with the same playing XI that lost against the Delhi Daredevils. Shubman Gill was expected to be given more opportunities with the bat but KKR went in with Narine and Lynn at the top. Narine continued his good form against RCB and provided a solid start to his side. Lynn was dropped on 7 and this mistake cost heavily to the opposition. Nitish Rana was retired hurt and Andre Russell went without troubling the scorers.

Just when it looked that RCB were crawling their way back into the game, Dinesh Karthik came to the rescue and scored a quick-fire 23 to ensure that his side went over the line. Kohli attributed the loss to poor fielding and also added that his side did not deserve to win as they did not put in maximum efforts.

For RCB, De Villiers missed the game as he was sick and Brendon Mccullum did a fine job at the top. Skipper Kohli led from the front by scoring a fifty but the target of 175 was not enough to restrict the KKR batting lineup. The loss puts RCB seventh on the points table and their chances of making it to the playoffs are diminishing day by day.

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