Picture Credit: BCCI/IPL/X
Fans came heavily on Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)'s Suyash Sharma for dropping a sitter against Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) opener Quinton de Kock on the third delivery of the opening Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 match, getting played at the iconic Eden Gardens. Following the superb opening event, when KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane and RCB skipper Rajat Patidar walked out for the toss, luck favoured the latter and he opted to field first. Australia star pacer Josh Hazlewood took the ball and bowled the opening over for the visitors. On the second ball of the contest, de Kock notched up the first four of the tournament while hitting towards the point area.
After scoring the boundary, de Kock went on to attack again on the next delivery but this time, he didn’t get success as the ball went into the air. However, Suyash failed to grab the opportunity and dropped the catch. Following Suyash’s mistake, IPL supporters didn’t relent as they trolled the 21-year-old heavily on social media. An X user named Vipin Tiwari took a dig at the youngster writing, “Suyash Sharma drops a dolly. He still has a love for KKR lol. de Kock got out on the very next ball after a catch was dropped.”
Hazlewood gets rid of de Kock two deliveries later
Following Suyash’s error, Hazlewood didn’t lose hope and delivered the first breakthrough to his team. De Kock failed to take advantage of the reprieve and lost his wicket on the fifth ball of the game. The Aussie got the Protea, caught by wicket-keeper Jitesh Sharma and concluded the latter’s innings on four.
Hazlewood is spearheading RCB’s fast-bowling unit in the game while Yash Dayal is supporting the Aussie veteran to the pace attack. Bengaluru are heavily relying on spinners to extract positive results on the dusty Kolkata surface. Instead of veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, they have shown trust in Suyash Sharma, who has played a lot of matches at the Eden Gardens while serving KKR in 2023 and 2024. Along with Suyash, Krunal Pandya and Liam Livingstone will also reinforce RCB's spin-bowling department.
