GT Vs KKR, IPL 2026: Kolkata's Top Order Woes Continue; Rahane, Raghuvanshi Flop, Seifert Fell After Decent Start

The Kolkata Knight Riders' top-order woes continues in what is their 6th Indian Premier League 2026 match against the Gujarat Titans. The first three batters got out before KKR posted 50 on the board.

Desperate to register their first win and put an end to their 5-match losing streak, the team management finally pulled the plug on Finn Allen, whose scores of 6, 9, and 1 in his previous 3 outings made him a doubt for upcoming matches.

In his place, KKR brought in Allen's New Zealand teammate Tim Seifert, but that change didn't yield any result or change in fortune.

While Seifert looked early confident early on but captain Ajinkya Rahane's golden duck to Mohammed Siraj on the 4th ball of the first over gave some momentum to Gujarat Titans.

Seifert showed brief intent with a six off Kagiso Rabada but the joy was short-lived. A few balls later, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (8 off 4) edged Rabada to the keeper, leaving KKR reeling at 24/2.

Two overs after Raghuvanshi's departure, Tim Seifert (19 off 14) became Rabada's 2nd wicket of the night with KKR managing just 37 runs in the powerplay.

This has become a recurring nightmare for the franchise this season. Previous failures against CSK and PBKS had similar patterns where the top-order collapsed and left everything for the already under pressure middle-lower order ballers.

KKR's decision to pair Tim Seifert with Ajinkya Rahane instead of his Kiwi partner Finn Allen, proved to be costly for the 3-time champions.

They found themselves three wickets down before the 10 over mark.

At the time of writing, KKR were 147/5 with Cameron Green at 75 off 44.

GT Vs KKR, IPL 2026: Playing XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Tim Seifert, Sunil Narine, Ajinkya Rahane(c), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi(w), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi

Gujarat Titans (Playing XI): Shubman Gill(c), Sai Sudharsan, Jos Buttler(w), Washington Sundar, Glenn Phillips, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Ashok Sharma, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna