After inviting the Gujarat Titans to open with the bat, the Kolkata Knight Riders might have regretted their decision. Both the opening batters Sai Sudarshan and Shubman Gill, once again displayed their prowess not just as batters but also as an opening pair that has the potential to surpass every other pair of batters when it comes to opening for the team and scoring runs. Both the batters built a 114 runs partnership when ultimately Sai Sudarshan fell prey to Andre Russell in the 12th over and was caught behind by Rahmanullah Gurbaz on 52 runs.
Equals Record of Kohli, Dhawan, and Warner
Both Gill and Sudarshan completed their respective half centuries and embedded their names in the record books in the list of the most century partnerships in IPL. After today’s innings, their partnership stand took to 6 century partnerships in IPL, paralleling Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner (6) and Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli (6). Although AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli stand tall with 10 century IPL partnerships and Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli (9) reserve the second spot on the podium for themselves, these two young Indian batters have a long way ahead for themselves.
Kolkata Knight Riders Playing 11
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane (c), Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Moeen Ali, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
Gujarat Titans Playing 11
Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Rahul Tewatia, Washington Sundar, Shahrukh Khan, Rashid Khan, Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore, Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj
