Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Reece Topley, who had sustained an injury in the team's first match of the competition against Mumbai Indians, has been ruled out of the tournament. The same was confirmed by the franchise's head coach Sanjay Bangar during an interview with the Broadcasters during the IPL 2023 match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and RCB.
Bangar also confirmed that Topley has returned home to England despite the best of efforts to keep him with the team and use his services at a later stage in the tournament. The team will be announcing his replacement in due time. In his absence, it is David Willey who has been given a chance in the match against KKR and has impressed straightaway, producing a double-wicket maiden inside the powerplay after captain Faf du Plessis's decision to win the toss and choose to bowl first.
Eventually, Willey finished with superb figures of 2 for 16 in his 4 overs, in an innings where Bangalore ended up conceding over 200. While none of the other bowling options used who bowled more than one over went for less than 8 runs an over, with Akash Deep conceding even 15 runs an over the English cricketer went for just 4.
Talking about Bangalore's overall bowling effort against KKR, the team won't be proud of the way they performed in the death overs on the field. Despite having reduced the Nitish Rana-led side to 89 for 5 in the 12th over, they find themselves needing 208 to win. The damage was done by Shardul Thakur who brought up the joint-fastest half-century, getting to his fifty off 20 balls in his 29-ball 68 run knock.
Thakur's partnership with Rinku Singh worth 103 off 47 balls completely changed the complexion of the match and could well turn out to be the differerence between both the sides in the end. Notably, Bangalore won their first match at home while Kolkata lost their away game against Punjab, heading into this contest.