‘Koi fayda nahi agle match me Roy aajayega’ – Fans react as Rahmanullah Gurbaz scores brilliant 81 against GT in IPL 2023

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are clashing against the defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT) in the 39th match of the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, April 29. GT skipper Hardik Pandya asked KKR to bat first. GT are riding high and they can go back to the top of the table with a victory against KKR. On the other hand, KKR won their 3rd match against RCB after losing 4 back-to-back contests. 

Meanwhile, KKR opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz got a chance to open the innings as Jason Roy is suffering from a back injury. Gurbaz fully utilised the opportunity and played a breathtaking 81-run off just 39 balls which included 5 fours and 7 sixes. He was easily smashing his fellow Afghan teammate Rashid Khan who is also the no.1 T20I bowler.

Interestingly Gurbaz was dropped from KKR’s playing XI after the management signed Roy as Shakib Al Hasan’s replacement and as soon as the England opener became available, he was included in the team in place of Gurbaz. However, after playing 3 matches, Roy injured his back and was ruled out of the match against GT. Now, it’d be interesting to see if KKR will play with Roy or Gurbaz in the next match.

Poor performance by KKR’s middle order

Talking about KKR’s innings, asked to bat first, despite getting a thunderous start from Gurbaz, KKR were able to achieve only a total of 179 runs in 20 overs. The reason behind this was the failure of KKR’s middle-order batters who disappointed their fans at Eden Gardens and couldn’t execute the brilliant start into a big target. It’s been close to three weeks since

Rinku Singh’s stunning assault against GT which helped the two-time champions pull off an incredible win at the Narendra Modi Stadium but today he didn’t have anything special. In the end, the powerful Caribbean allrounder Andre Russel and David Wiese helped the team to achieve a fighting total. But still it looks like they are 20 runs short considering the start they got from Gurbaz.

Here’s how fans reacted:

Landya was doing rr after getting bashed by gurbaz🤣🤣🤣🤣

— cric freak (@cricfreak1718) April 29, 2023

Intelligent move by kkr to handle Afghan spinners of GT…

— Kshitij Jain (@Kshitij1305) April 29, 2023

https://twitter.com/PogoTogo1/status/1652284414662172675?s=20

Dream for Rohit Sharma

— Abxd (@ABXD_DC) April 29, 2023

Rashid ko sahi pela 😂

— Shubham Kumar (@Shubham12501) April 29, 2023

Liton das is extrending his family emergency stay

— Rohit (@imr0hit_) April 29, 2023

https://twitter.com/AppuRO45/status/1652284319514390531?s=20

Pel diya Rashid khan ko. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

— Vicky Mehra (@Vickymehra05) April 29, 2023