‘I don’t know where it came from,’ says Shardul, referring to KKR’s record-breaking 68 off 29

Shardul Thakur says he “don’t know where it came from” after hitting 68 off 29 balls to lead KKR to an 81-run victory over RCB in IPL 2023.

Shardul Thakur simply causes events to occur… somehow, somewhere, out of nowhere. He’s not unplayable with the new ball, and he lacks the pace and bounce to make batters nervous. His variations aren’t sorcery, and his yorkers aren’t so consistent that he can be a death overs regular, but he bowls the hard overs and, more often than not, prizes out valuable wickets to have a significant impact on the outcome of the match.

Shardul Thakur’s story does not end there. As a batter, he has a few (or many) tricks up his sleeve. When it comes to batting, he has a straightforward approach: see the ball, hit the ball. What works in his favor is that when he hits them, they usually travel a long distance. This quality was on full display in front of a packed house at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. Shardul’s outrageous strokeplay hit Royal Challengers Bangalore so hard that they couldn’t recover.

When Shardul walked into the middle, KKR had just lost their two pillars of the batting unit, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (57) and Andre Russell (0), off consecutive deliveries to Karn Sharma in the 12th over. KKR’s total is 89/5, with only Sunil Narine and the bowlers remaining. RCB would have hoped to wrap things up quickly and possibly try another quick chase to improve their run rate even more. But then the Shardul factor came into play.

The all-rounder began his innings with a stroke of fortune. He didn’t pick a googly and instead got an inside edge that raced away to the fine leg, but Shardul was all class, muscle, and power after that. In the next over off Akash Deep, he hit two fours and a six, and he followed that up with back-to-back sixes of off-spinner Michael Bracewell in the 15th over, as KKR made a quick comeback in the match.

In just 20 balls, he reached his fifty with a boundary off Harshal Patel. A couple of mishits landed away from the fielders in between. It was Shardul’s day, and RCB couldn’t intervene.

When Mohammed Siraj finally got rid of Shardul in the final over, KKR had already reached 198 for 7. Umesh Yadav hit a boundary, and they finished with 204/7, the highest total in IPL history after losing five wickets inside 100. The previous record was also held by KKR, who went from 31/5 to 202 against CSK in 2021 thanks to Andre Russell’s seemingly unimaginable knock.

When asked to describe his 68 off 29 balls, Shardul said, “I don’t even know where it came from, but looking at the scorecard at the time, everyone would have thought we were struggling.”

He attributed the onslaught on Thursday night to the coaching staff and his subconscious mind. “The subconscious mind takes control. To do that at a higher level, you must also have skills, but we also work hard in the nets. There will be a time when we can slog it in the nets. The coaching staff does the throwdowns and allows us to range-hit. And you know how pitches always suit batsmen, don’t they? “He stated.

They most certainly are, but not for the RCB batters, at least not in last night’s match. RCB were rocked by the spin trio of KKR – Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy, and debutant Suyash Sharma – after being battered by Shardul, Gurbaz, and Rinku Singh. The three unknown spinners took nine wickets between them to bowl RCB out for 123, giving KKR an 81-run victory.