Kolkata Knight Riders Prevail Over Rising Pune Supergiants in a Thriller

By: Tarish Bhatt

It was a same old story at the end for Rising Pune Supergiants, as they found themselves 10-15 runs short of the winning total, again.

Kolkata Knight  Riders, meanwhile, strengthened their position at the top with a narrow two-wicket win over the Supergiants in a thriller.

It wasn’t a convincing win for the table-toppers, but they would take it seeing how the Supergiants made it hard for them to chase 161 on a turner.

Suryakumar Yadav was the hero for the Knight Riders, as he struck a superb fifty, while others also contributed in their own ways, as the visitors managed to chase down the total with three balls to spare.

Earlier, put into bat, the Supergiants posted a competitive total on the board, thanks to Ajinkya Rahane’s fifty and an unbeaten cameo from captain MS Dhoni.

Rahane held the innings together, after the hosts Faf du Plessis cheaply. He also stitched a crucial partnership with Steve Smith on his way to the fifty.

Dhoni, meanwhile, provided a trademark finish to the innings and made an unbeaten 12-ball 23, hitting 17 runs off Morne Morkle’s final over.

The Knight Riders, however, were off to a shaky start as they lost the top-order inside seven overs, but Yusuf Pathan and Yadav put them on a winning track.

Pune managed to rip through their middle-order towards the end, but it proved to be a touch too late, as the Knights registered their fourth win in the tournament.