A sizzling knock from Rising Pune Supergiant opener Rahul Tripathi helped his team overhaul Kolkata Knight Riders’ 155/8 by four wickets at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday.
After Pune won the toss and opted to bowl, KKR’s batting never really got going as they slumped to 41/3 in the Powerplay, missing Robin Uthappa due to a niggle. Manish Pandey and Colin de Grandhomme did slick repair jobs and a late flourish by Suryakumar Yadav gave their bowlers something to bowl at, finishing at 155/8.
But despite the early wicket of Ajinkya Rahane, Tripathi was in a different zone, taking on KKR’s pacers and dispatching them to all corners of the ground. Wickets did fall at the other end but his immaculate hitting ensured that Pune were in control of the chase, before finally falling for 93 with six runs left in the chase, a fantastic innings considering no other batsman in the match crossed 40. There was some tension at the end but Daniel Christian however hit a six off the fourth-last ball to take Pune home.
Unadkat starts with a wicket maiden
Batsmen talk about the dream start but it applies to bowlers as well. And Jaydev Unadkat couldn’t have had a better start. He took the pace off the ball and Sunil Narine couldn’t do much else. After five balls, Narine hit one back at him and Unadkat pouched a smart caught-and-bowled chance. 0/1 after 1 over. A dream start for Pune.
Powerplay misery
The misery continued for KKR though the Powerplay. Sheldon Jackson contrived to hit his own wickets while nudging to the leg-side. Gautam Gambhir hammered a four and six off Washington Sundar but then threw away his wicket, going for another big one. KKR limped to 41/3 after six overs, their second-worst score in the Powerplay this tournament.
Colin de Grandhomme keeps KKR afloat
The reason why KKR didn’t collapse was largely due to the efforts of big-hitting Kiwi all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme and, to a lesser extent, Manish Pandey. Grandhomme took special liking to Imran Tahir, hitting him for two consecutive sixes and a four in another over. From 59/4 after 10 overs, KKR kept in touch with the run-rate and got to 110/5 in 15. Unadkat finally got back and dismissed him for a 19-ball 36.
Steve Smith and Ben Stokes collide
Suryakumar Yadav kept up KKR’s momentum in the last five overs with a 16-ball 30, but the big talking point then was, what looked, a nasty collision between Steve Smith and Ben Stokes at the boundary. Both came in to take a catch on the deep mid-wicket boundary and collided in mid-air, going over the line. Steve Smith banged his head against the advertising board and it didn’t look too good. He did shake himself off and managed to catch it.
Rahul Tripathi’s brutal onslaught
This Rahul Tripathi just keeps getting better. The surface was up-and-down, he was facing Nathan Coulter-Nile and Umesh Yadav, and he had lost Ajinkya Rahane early. But he had not fear. Coulter-Nile was hammered for 18 in one over, and 14 in another over. RPS rocketed to 74/2 in the Powerplay and Tripathi hammered a 23-ball fifty, the fastest for Rising Pune Supergiant, well in control of the chase.
What was exceptional about the knock was that he did not let up. After his fifty, he kept his head in the game and at the deep end of the match, hammered Kuldeep Yadav for three straight sixes, picking the length immaculately, to take Pune closer. He was finally dismissed for a 52-ball 93 with six runs remaining in the chase.
KKR’s spinners take the day off
Gautam Gambhir has fallen back on his spinners for control in the tournament but today was one of the days when none of them stood up. Sunil Narine, coming off a duck while batting, was introduced in the seventh over and his first two overs went for 18. Narine did manage the wicket of Stokes in his last over, but the damage had already been done and he finished with 1/28 off his four overs.
Kuldeep Yadav was brought in as late as the 13th over and Tripathi showed him what he thought of him, taking him for 19 off five balls. In the last over, Yadav thought he had got some of his pride back, taking out MS Dhoni (twice in the tournament now) but Tripathi ruined even that, sweeping him for another six off the last ball of his spell as he finished with 1/35.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 155/8 (Manish Pandey 37, Colin de Grandhomme 36; Jaydev Unadkat 2/28, Washington Sundar 2/18) lost to Rising Pune Supergiant 158/6 in 19.2 overs (Rahul Tripathi 93, Ben Stokes 14; Chris Woakes 3/18, Umesh Yadav 1/23 ) by four wickets.