Published: May 15, 2016, 01:34 PM (IST)
Edited: May 15, 2016, 01:34 PM (IST)
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) edged past Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) in the 45th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at Eden Gardens on Saturday by 8 wickets (D/L method) in a rain affected match. Yusuf Pathan came out all guns blazing and bailed his team out of a precarious situation with his cameo of 37 off 18 deliveries. With this win, KKR have now climbed to the second position in the points table and now seems to be the toughest contender for making it to the playoffs.
Earlier, RPS won the toss and MS Dhoni surprisingly opted to bat first despite having a poor record of defending targets this season. Once again their top-order collapsed as the traditionalist Ajinkya Rahane in an attempt to slog a back-of-a-length delivery threw his wicket away. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals as a result of which a partnership was not built. Usman Khawaja looked good but some canny field placements and his lack of temperament cost him his wicket. George Bailey was putting the scorers to work but was completely outfoxed by a loopy delivery from Piyush Chawla.
Dhoni played a contrasting innings and looked cautious in his approach. And in the process, Irfan Pathan sacrificed his wicket as some misunderstanding while sneaking a single curtailed the southpaw’s innings. RPS were battling out in the middle and Dhoni was finding it hard to rotate the strike when rain interrupted the play and the game was stopped for hours. KKR bowlers did a fantastic job with the ball; Sunil Narine looked impressive as he was making a comeback from his injury.
After some time the game resumed and KKR were asked to chase 66 runs from 54 deliveries. The target was a cakewalk for the star studded side but Ravichandran Ashwin made their journey a bit difficult when the ball was thrown to him to bowl the first over of the game. He managed to send both the in-form openers back to the pavilion within first three deliveries and put KKR on the back foot. Yusuf Pathan survived a close call when he failed to pick a carom ball and was caught leg before.
It was just a matter of one partnership to see KKR over the line and Pathan along with Manish Pandey ensured they did so. Pathan senior went berserk and launched an attack at Eden Gardens. He kept smashing some mighty hits and made a mockery of the set target. Eventually, KKR won the game with 24 deliveries to spare and didn’t lose any more wickets.
Brief Scores:
Rising Pune Supergiants: 103 for 6 in 17.4 overs [George Bailey 33(27), Usman Khawaja 21(17); Piyush Chawla 4-0-21-2, Andre Russell 2-0-11-2] lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 66 for 2 in 5 overs: [Yusuf Pathan 37*(18), Manish Pandey 15*(10); Ravichandran Ashwin 2-0-30-2] by 8 wickets (D/L method).
(Suraj Choudhari, an avid cricket follower who plays the sport at club level, is a staffer with CricLife)
