IPL 2016, Match 20: Kolkata Knight Riders beat Rising Pune Supergiants by two wickets at Pune, Stars and Flops

First time in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL), a MS Dhoni-led side has lost four back-to-back matches.

First time in the history of Indian Premier League (IPL), a MS Dhoni-led side has lost four back-to-back matches and have now joined Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) at the bottom of the points table, who too have lost four matches so far. It was surely not a comfortable win for Gautam Gambhir-led Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) but probably one of the most exciting games so far in this season of IPL.

After winning the crucial toss, KKR skipper Gambhir invited Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) to bat first and opener Faf du Plessis failed to get going, managing just four. From there on, opener Ajinkya Rahane was joined by Steve Smith and they added 56 runs from 50 balls, which proved to be quite slow one. Smith went out after playing steady knock of 28-ball 31, whereas Rahane kept scoring with good rate and completed another half-century, his third of the tournament. Rahane ended up with 52-ball 67 and in the death overs, it was Dhoni who ensured a decent total on board with his short cameo of unbeaten 12-ball 23.

Like RPS, KKR too did not get off to a good start, losing Robin Uthappa off the first ball. The in-form Gambhir was soon run out. From there on, it was a Suryakumar Yadav show. His crucial 49-ball 60 turned the game but on the other end, wickets kept falling. In between Yusuf Pathan scored a useful 27-ball 36, followed by Andre Russell’s 11-ball 17. Murugan Ashwin, Albie Morkel and Thisara Perera took two wickets each. It went down to the wires and KKR were eight wickets down and hopes seemed to have faded when Umesh Yadav sealed it for KKR with a winning six in the final over bowled by Perera.

Dhoni once again was the culprit for under bowling Ravichandran Ashwin. He was just given two overs.

Turning Point: RPS skipper MS Dhoni asked Ankit Sharma to bowled the 17th over of the match, when KKR needed 42 from 24 balls and he conceded 17 runs from that over, which proved to be the turning point of the match. Dhoni could have gone with Ashwin in that over.

Brief Scores:

Rising Pune Supergiants 160 for 5 in 20 overs [Ajinkya Rahane 67 (52), Steve Smith 31 (28); Shakid Al Hasan 3-0-14-1, Rajagopal Satish 3-0-20-1] beat Kolkata Knight Riders 162 for 8 in 19.3 overs [Suryakumar Yadav 60 (49), Yusuf Pathan 36 (27); Rajat Bhatia 4-0-19-2, Thisara Perera 3.3-0-28-2] by 2 wickets.