KNIGHTS PULL OFF A COUP AGAINST SUPER KINGS
Opener Rahul Tripathi and the bowlers do the job as Kolkata beats Chennai by 10 runs to register its third league win
ABU DHABI: Kolkata Knight Riders applied the choke brilliantly at the death to prevail against Chennai Super Kings by 10 runs in a thrilling Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday. Set to chase 168, the Super Kings was restricted to 157 for five with the expected late assault never arriving.
With this morale-crushing loss, the Super Kings has recorded its fourth defeat in six matches, while the Knight Riders posted its third win in five matches. KKR captain Dinesh Karthik showed brilliant tactical acumen when it came to rotating his bowlers and his ploy of holding back mystery spinner Sunil Narine for the late overs worked like a charm. In his very first over, Narine got rid of the dangerous Shane Watson for 50 (40b, 6x4, 1x6) caught leg-before. He was ably supported by the other mystery spinner in Varun Chakravarthy who bowled tidily besides accounting for MS Dhoni for 11 (12b, 1x4). In the end as the tension mounted, KKR allrounder Andre Russell, who is experiencing a lean patch with the willow, stepped up to bowl splendidly in the 18th and 20th overs.
Earlier, the Super Kings staged a remarkable comeback after opener Rahul Tripathi’s 51-ball 81 to bowl out Kolkata Knight Riders for 167.
Batting first, KKR lost three wickets in the last over with Dwayne Bravo removing two of them. Bravo, a CSK veteran, celebrated his 37th birthday by returning impressive figures of 3/37 in his quota of four overs.
Tripathi enjoyed his promotion to the top with an excellent fifty but Chennai Super Kings bowlers applied the brakes to bundle out Kolkata Knight Riders.
Tripathi picked up from where he left off against Delhi Capitals and raced to his fifth IPL fifty in 31 balls to give KKR a solid foundation after Dinesh Karthik called it right at the toss.
At 93 for two at the midway stage, KKR looked set for a big score but Bravo struck after that.
Leg-spinner Karn Sharma (2/25), Shradul Thakur (2/28), Sam Curran (2/26) claimed two wickets each as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side bounced back in the back 10 by taking eight wickets while giving away just 74 runs.
Dhoni picked up four catches, the last one being his best effort.
Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 167/in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 81, Dwayne Bravo 3/37, Karn Sharma 2/25) bt Chennai Super Kings 157/5 in 20 overs (S Watson 50, CV Varun 1/28, K Nagarkoti 1/21)
CSK’s Dwayne Bravo, who celebrated his 37th birthday on Wednesday, became the fifth bowler to take 150 IPL wickets
In the middle overs (of the second innings), there was a phase where KKR bowled two to three good overs. The batsmen let our bowlers down. We need to be innovative and I don’t think we were against Kolkata
MS Dhoni,
CSK captain