IPL 2023: Virat Kohli’s Old Tweet on Shardul Thakur Goes Viral After KKR Beat RCB

Kolkata: It was a night to remember for Shardul Thakur as he hit his maiden IPL fifty at the Eden Gardens against Royal Challengers Bangalore. He came in and joined Rinku Singh at a time when Kolkata was reeling at 89 for five. Thakur did not bother about the scoreboard as he got into his own zone and started dealing with boundaries. His 68 off 29 balls helped KKR post a mammoth 204 which proved to be enough as the Knights won the game by 81 runs. After the win, an old Virat Kohli tweet started going viral. The tweet was on Thakur. The then Indian skipper had written, “Tula maanla re Thakur.”

Nothing much. Just an old VK tweet.

#KKRvsRCB #IPL23 pic.twitter.com/t4C4Wo4vdw

— Umaima Saeed (@UmaimaSaeed) April 6, 2023

“I don’t even know where it came from but looking at the scorecard at that time, everyone would have thought we are struggling. But your subconscious mind takes over. You also have to have skills to do that at the higher level, but we also work hard in the nets. There is a period where we can slog it in the nets. Coaching staff do the throwdowns, and give us the option of range-hitting,” Thakur said at the post-match presentation.

Defending 204, Kolkata’s three mystery spinners — Varun Chakaravarthy (4/15), Sunil Narine (2/16) and debutant Suyash Sharma (3/30) took nine wickets between themselves to bamboozle the RCB batters and bowl them out for 123 in 17.4 overs.

Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 204/7 in 20 overs (Shardul Thakur 68, Rahmanullah Gurbaz 57; David Willey 2/16, Karn Sharma 2/26) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 123 all out in 17.4 overs (Faf du Plessis 23, Virat Kohli 21; Varun Chakaravarthy 4/15, Suyash Sharma 3/30) by 81 runs