Riding on a brilliant half ton from Robin Uthappa and a quickfire innings from captain Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Riders hammered Rising Pune Supergiant by seven wickets in the Indian Premier League-10 match at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, here yesterday
Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir
Kolkata Knight Riders' Robin Uthappa lofts one in the air during their IPL tie against Rising Pune Supergiants at Pune yesterday. Pic/PTI
Pune: Riding on a brilliant half ton from Robin Uthappa and a quickfire innings from captain Gautam Gambhir, Kolkata Knight Riders hammered Rising Pune Supergiant by seven wickets in the Indian Premier League-10 match at Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium, here yesterday.
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Uthappa scored 87 off 47 deliveries, hitting seven fours and six sixes, while KKR captain smashed 62 off 46 balls which included six boundaries and one six. Uthappa completed his half-century in 26 balls as he and Gambhir put on a 158-run partnership for the second wicket to help KKR march towards an emphatic victory.
Earlier, Supergiant scored 182 for 5, thanks to useful contributions from almost all of their top seven batsmen.
Rahul Tripathi and Ajinkya Rahane gave the hosts yet another good start, something they have done consistently for the past four games. Tripathi was the aggressor of the two, bringing up his fifth consecutive 30-plus score in the process. The duo scored 57 runs in the Power-play, laying the platform for a big total.
Tripathi was particularly impressive with the way he charged Chris Woakes twice, before hitting Sunil Narine for three fours in one over. Rahane and Smith continued to collect runs with ease after Tripathi’s dismissal to bring up Supergiant’s 100 in 12.1 overs. Rahane played a typical 41-ball 46-run knock.
KKR captain Gautam Gambhir
Kolkata Knight Riders played three spinners, and Gambhir made good use of them, bowling each of them for full quota. The wicket was gripping a bit, and Gambhir used only his spinners between over No 10 and 18, quite an unusual thing to do in the T20 format.
And the move, especially that of bowling the spinners at death, paid off in a way. Sunil Narine conceded just seven runs in the 17th over, while Kuldeep Yadav bowled some brilliant wrong-uns to get rid of MS Dhoni (23 runs, 11 balls, one four, two sixes) and Manoj Tiwari in the 18th over, conceding just five runs.
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