Vijay Shankar backs Yash Dayal after harrowing outing against KKR in IPL 2023

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won their second match in a row as they beat defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) by three wickets in a thriller in IPL 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Rinku Singh (48* off 21) set the stage on fire and did the unthinkable as he smashed five sixes in a row with 28 needed off five balls to pull off a breath-taking win for Kolkata Knight Riders. It was a roller-coaster match which saw Impact Player Venkatesh Iyer sizzle with a blistering innings of 83 off 40 balls, ably supported by Nitish Rana (45 off 29) and Rashid Khan take the first hat-trick of IPL 2023 but it was Rinku Singh's heroics that will be talked about for years to come.

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Batting first, Sai Sudharsan (53 off 38) and Vijay Shankar (63* off 24) ensured that GT posted a daunting target of 205 for KKR. KKR were well on their way to achieve the target when Iyer and Rana were at the crease, along with Russell, Narine, and Thakur waiting in the wings. Rashid Khan turned the tide of the game in GT’s favour with a hat-trick before Rinku smashed Yash Dayal for 31 runs in the final over to grasp victory from the jaws of defeat.

GT all-rounder Vijay Shankar has empathised with his teammate Yash Dayal after he ended with figures of 69/0 from his four overs including the 31-run final over. Shankar highlighted that one over does not define a player.

“Last year, Yash Dayal bowled some very important overs for Gujarat Titans, to win us the tournament. You cannot define a player based on one over in a game. Everyone has worked so hard to reach the stage of IPL, having worked so hard in domestic cricket.”

"These things are bound to happen and so many players have been in tough situation. As a team, we will be with Dayal because it is not easy to come out of a situation like this. We will make sure that he is in a very good mental space going forward," he said after the match.

Shankar, who was the top scorer for GT in the game with a 63*, smashing four boundaries and five maximums acknowledged that GT were well ahead heading into the final over of the game.

"Till that particular point (20th over), we were much ahead in the game. We have to accept that this is a game of cricket, and anything can happen. As a cricketer, I can feel what he is feeling, and it is about how we back him and get him out of a tough situation," he said at the post-match press conference.

The Gujarat Titans will be in action next on April 13 against the Punjab Kings in Mohali.