Former cricketer and broadcaster Ravi Shastri committed an on-air blunder during the toss between Kolkata Knight Riders and the Gujarat Titans. Both teams were up against each other in the 60th league-stage clash of the IPL 2026 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday, May 16. The toss saw visiting skipper Shubman Gill winning the toss and let the home team post the score on the board first. During the post-toss interaction with Gill, former India head coach Ravi Shastri mistakenly claimed that the Titans had already qualified for the IPL 2026 playoffs.

"You've got the Q alphabet already stamped against your team, how are you approaching this one?” Shastri told Gill. However, the current national captain didn’t correct the speaker and gracefully adjusted his response to shift the focus back towards the team standards. β€œWe believe that, batsmen do win you matches, but if you want to win championships, your bowling unit has to be in form and luckily for us, they are firing all cylinders,” Gill told Shastri.

β€œOur bowling unit has been top-notch this season. The momentum is with us and we have to keep doing the things consistently that we have been doing well. This is not the stage, this is not the time to take any teams lightly, but we're hoping to win the next two and hopefully be stable in the top two positions. It gives the edge to the teams that finish in the top two. You get one extra match. Hopefully, we won't play the extra match, but it does give you an edge, you can go out there and play your game,” he added.

KKR snap GT’s five-game winning streak in a batting-dominated game

After being asked to bat first, the Kolkata Knight Riders got off to a disappointing start after losing their skipper early at just 14 runs. However, Rahane’s fellow opener Finn Allen came up with a staggering 93-run knock off just 35 balls. He combined four boundaries and 10 maximums to help the side get stable. Following his dismissal off a Sai Kishore delivery, Angkrish Raghuvanshi and Cameron Green came up with their respective fifties. While Raghuvanshi pulled off 82* off 44, the Aussie all-rounder added 52* off 28 to help the three-time champions post 247 with the loss of two wickets.

In return, opener Sai Sudharsan played an impactful knock of 53* runs off 28 balls, with a combination of six boundaries and three maximums. Skipper Shubman Gill added crucial 85 runs off 49 balls, while Jos Buttler came up with 57 runs in 35 balls. However, names such as Nishant Sindhu and Rahul Tewatia couldn’t do much and were able to put up only 1 and 2 runs, respectively.

The Purple Brigade recorded a huge 29-run win to not only end GT’s five-game winning streak but also jeopardise their playoff spot.