Shardul Thakur showed his all-rounder capabilities as he smashed a counter-attacking half-century before the spinners played their part as Kolkata Knight Riders made a memorable homecoming with an 81-run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL 2023 on Thursday. With pitch assisting the bowlers, KKR found themselves tottering at 89/5 before Shardul Thakur's heroic innings scripted a superb recovery with his 29-ball 68 to power his team to 204/7 after RCB opted to bowl. Coming in at No 7, Thakur hammered the joint-fastest fifty of the season off 20 balls and shared an entertaining 103-run wicket partnership off 47 balls with Rinku Singh (46 off 33). In reply, RCB failed to last the distance and folded up for 123 in 17.4 overs with the trio of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and debutant Suyash Sharma sharing eight wickets between themselves. It was KKR's first win of the season.