TRIPATHI TREAT
Rising Pune Supergiant rode on little-known Rahul Tripathi’s career-best 93 off 52 balls to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by a fourwicket margin in an IPL encounter at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday and take giant strides towards the playoffs.
Pune, now on 14 points from 11 games, moved to third spot with KKR staying on second with the same number of points as Pune from 11 outings. Replying to KKR’s 155-8, Pune scored 158-6 in 19.2 overs.
Tripathi, who is playing his first IPL, brought up his fifty in just 23 deliveries with eight fours and three sixes. The Maharashtra batsman went from strength to strength after his half-century spanking chinaman Kuleep Yadav for three sixes on the trot in the 13th over.
Chris Woakes fared best among the bowlers for the hosts (3-18) taking the wickets of Pune and Australia skipper Steve Smith (9) and in-form Manoj Tiwary (8) off two excellent deliveries.
Umesh Yadav (1-22) removed India teammate Ajinkya Rahane (11) early but it was Tripathi who remained unfazed and took the charges against the likes of Nathan Coulter-Nile whom he spanked for 32 runs. Ben Stokes departed for 14 but by the time the England all-rounder trotted back towards the dugout, the job was all but done.
Tripathi was finally dismissed by Woakes, seven runs short of his maiden ton but Dan Christian (9 not out) hit the winning runs with a six off Colin de Grandhomme in the final over.
Earlier, the New Zealand all-rounder Grandhomme’s 36 and Manish Pandey’s 37 saved KKR the blushes as the hosts recovered from a top-order collapse to post 155/8.