Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s scintillating knock of 81 went in vain as Kolkata Knight Riders went down to Gujarat Titans by 7 wickets at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday.
After being asked to bat first, Kolkata lost N Jagadeesan early, as he was trapped leg before wicket by Mohammed Shami for 19.
Shardul Thakur who was promoted at No 3, was caught brilliantly by Mohit Sharma who ran back from mid on and completed a well judged catch off Shami for a duck.
The pair of Gurbaz and Venkatesh Iyer added 37 runs for the third wicket stand before Josh Little struck twice- first by dismissing Iyer (11) and then Nitish Rana (4), caught at backward point by Rahul Tewatia.
Afghanistan wicket keeper Gurbaz struck some big hits before holing out to Rashid Khan at deep midwicket off Noor Ahmad.
However a quickfire cameo from Andre Russell (34) helped Kolkata reach 179/7 in their 20 overs.
Chasing 180, Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill got Gujarat off to a quickfire start. The pair added 41 runs for the opening wicket before the former perished to Andre Russell for 10.
Gill along with skipper Hardik Pandya featured in a 50 run stand for the second wicket the latter was trapped leg before wicket by Harshit Rana for 26.
Sunil Narine then struck a crucial blow by dismissing the well set Gill who well one run short of a well deserved half century.
Vijay Shankar (51)* along with David Miller (32)* then added an unbroken 87 run stand for the third wicket to take Gujarat Titans to a thumping 7 wicket win.