IPL 10: Rahul Tripathi fires Rising Pune Supergiant to victory against KKR

Photo: @BCCI

New Delhi: Rising Pune Supergiant opener Rahul Tripathi butchered the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers with a brilliant knock to power his team to victory by 4 wickets at the Eden Gardens.

Rahul led from the front as he blasted 9 fours and 7 sixes in his 52-ball 93-run innings to single-handedly destroy the famed bowling attack of the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Chris Woakes was the most successful bowler Kolkata Knight Riders as he clinched 3 wickets for 18 runs.

RPS now moves to third position on the points table with 14 points. The Pune based franchise has won 6 of their last 7 outings.

Earlier, Rising Pune Supergiant dished out a tidy bowling performance to restrict Kolkata Knight Riders to 155 for eight in their return-leg IPL T20 fixture here on Wednesday.

Put in to bat, KKR found the going tough at their backyard and suffered their worst start of the season to be struggling at 55 for four inside 10 overs.

Their top four, Sunil Narine (0), Gautam Gambhir (24), Sheldon Jackson (10) and Yusuf Pathan (4) were all back in dugout midway into their innings.

Unadkat returned with excellent figures of 4-1-28-2, while 17-year-old Washington Sundar too was impressive in his 2/18 from two overs.

The duo of Manish Pandey (37 off 32) and Colin de Grandhomme (36 off 19) revived KKR innings with a 48-run fifth wicket partnership off 30 balls.

Having conceded just six runs in his opening spell of two overs, Unadkat returned to dismiss Grandhomme in the 17th over in which he conceded one run as KKR struggled to get going.

It was thanks to Suryakumar Yadav, who was playing in place of an injured Robin Uthappa, KKR were able to cross the 150-run mark after the aggressive batsman smashed 30 off 16 balls.

Pune had the best start of the tournament with Jaydev bowling a wicket-maiden off Sunil Narine.

After being beaten in the first five deliveries, Narine finally got a connection in the last ball of the over only to find Unadkat in the way.

Pune captain Steven Smith showed full faith on youngster Washington, bringing the offspinner in the fourth over with KKR yet to break free.

It was a gamble that paid off as Washington struck with Sheldon Jackson out hit-wicket, a first for KKR in 10 seasons.

Gambhir took charge on Washington with back to back four and six but in his next attempt the KKR skipper holed out to Rahane at deep midwicket, leaving his team at 41 for three in Powerplay.

This was the worst start for KKR as there was more in store when Imran Tahir trapped a sloppy Yusuf Pathan (4) LBW in his second over.

Just when they were looking down the barrel, Pandey played a perfect fiddle Grandhomme as the duo scored at brisk pace to notch up 55 runs between 10 to 15 overs.

Unadkat returned to haunt KKR once again when he dismissed the dangerous-looking Grandhomme in the incisive in the 17th over that read 1-0-1-1.

In the next over, Nathan Coulter-Nile was hit on his helmet by a rising bouncer from Dan Christan but fortunately there was no injury concern.