IPL 10, Match 41, KKR v RPS Review: RPS stun KKR in their own backyard

Having won 5 out of their last 6 games, Rising Pune Supergiant visited the Eden Gardens to play the 41st match of the season against Kolkata Knight Riders. Although both sides are sitting pretty in the top four yet the clash was extremely important as the IPL enters its business end and the race to occupy the top 2 spots gets even more intense. Both the sides have been in excellent form lately and this encounter was expected to be a close one.

But as it turned out, the visitors proved to be too good for the hosts and inflicted a rather one-sided victory. RPS won the toss and asked KKR to bat first and immediately the move paid dividends. Sunil Narine, who has been opening the innings for quite some time couldn’t replicate the performances from the past into this game. Jaydev Unadkat bowled the first over and beat the bat of the batsman on five consecutive occasions with different variations. With the last ball, he kept it a bit short and Narine made the connection first time but only hit it as far as the bowler on his follow through and departed for a duck.

In the absence of Robin Uthappa, Sheldon Jackson was promoted to number 3. He hit a couple of delightful boundaries and looked good from the start. But his stay at the crease was cut short by an unfortunate incident. In the 4th over, while facing Washington Sundar, he went on the back foot to push a delivery to leg but ended up knocking the bails with his back leg and had to make the long walk back after scoring 10 off 9 balls.

Gambhir was watching all the chaos from the other end and had scored just 4 off 12 balls. Then, he stepped up a gear and struck 3 fours and a six within a space of 6 balls. But he became too ambitious against the youngster Sundar and tried to send him over the ropes but was caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary for 24 off 19 balls in the 6th over. KKR were reduced to 41/3 after the end of the powerplay. Yusuf Pathan who came in at number 4 failed to contribute a lot and was trapped in front by Imran Tahir for just 4.

They were in desperate need of a partnership which was provided by Manish Pandey and Colin de Grandhomme. The Kiwi came out all guns blazing and slammed Tahir for two back to back sixes. The duo added 48 runs in quick time before Pandey went back in the hunt for quick runs off the bowling of Daniel Christian. He scored 37 off 32 balls when the score read 103/5 after 14.1 overs. de Grandhomme too lost his wicket soon after scoring 36 off 19 balls.

KKR were still short of a competitive total but the Suryakumar Yadav played a brilliant cameo during the slog overs and scored an unbeaten 30 off just 16 balls that included 2 sixes and as many fours. KKR lost two further wickets in the form of Chris Woakes and Nathan Coulter-Nile but reached a respectable 155/8 at the end of 20 overs. The pitch was sluggish and two-paced that was stopping on the batsmen from time to time. They had defended a score of 131 at the same venue against Royal Challengers Bangalore and they had hope with a substantial score on the board.

In reply, RPS suffered an early blow when Ajinkya Rahane was dismissed by Umesh Yadav for 11 off a brilliant rising delivery outside off that took the edge and carried nicely to the wicket-keeper. Rahul Tripathi then went on the offensive and smashed 3 fours and a six in the third over bowled by Coulter-Nile and followed it up another six and four in the next over by Umesh. Smith too joined in the act and hit a six off Woakes in the 5th over that brought up the fastest fifty of the side in IPL history. They cruised to 53 after just 4.2 overs and the chase was well and truly on.

But the skipper attempted a weird shot off Woakes in the same over and lost his wicket. He made room and aimed to loft the bowler over covers but missed the ball by a long way as the ball dismantled the off stump. He went back after scoring 9 as RPS moved to 59/2 after 5 overs. Tripathi was unflustered at the other end kept the assault going and hit a six and 2 fours in the last over of the powerplay to take the score to 74/2. He reached his half-century off just 23 balls and was keeping the side in control of the chase.

Manoj Tiwary who had joined him at number 4 couldn’t last long and became the second victim of Woakes. Interestingly, Ben Stokes was sent ahead of MS Dhoni on the back of a magnificent match-winning century from the last game. But this time around, it wasn’t Stokes but Tripathi who was doing it for his side. He hammered three consecutive sixes to Kuldeep Yadav in the 13th over and reached his highest T20 score.

Narine removed Stokes in the 14th over courtesy a caught and bowled for 14 and then Kuldeep got the better of Dhoni 2 overs later. But the two wickets came too late for KKR as RPS were already in within touching distance. Tripathi who was approaching his century found a substitute fielder Rovman Powell at short mid-wicket who plucked a catch out of thin air. The batsman had to walk back but not before he had put his team in close quarters. He scored 93 off just 52 balls that included 9 fours and 7 sixes.

Daniel Christian finished the match in style with a six in the last over and took his side past the line with 4 wickets and 4 balls to spare. With this win, RPS came on par with KKR with 14 points who are in the second spot by virtue of a better net run rate.

Brief Scores:

Kolkata Knight Riders: 155/8 in 20 overs (Manish Pandey 37; Washington Sundar 2/12, Jaydev Unadkat 2/28)

Rising Pune Supergiant: 158/6 in 19.2 overs (Rahul Tripathi 93; Chris Woakes 3/18, Umesh Yadav 1/23)

Check out – Full scorecard here

Check out – Full points table here