It was the 29th day of the tenth Indian Premier League yesterday when Rising Pune Supergiants took on Kolkata Knight Riders at their home ground in Eden Gardens Kolkata. This was match no 41 of IPL2017 and the result served to keep things interesting just as Match No 40 did. Here are some highlights of the match and signs of things to come:
Pune won the toss and put Kolkata in to bat first. Starting with a wicket maiden from Jayadev Unadkat, RPS did well to curtail the home team to just 155 for the loss of 8 wickets. Major contributors with the bat were Gautam Gambhir (24 off 19), Manish Pandey (37 off 32), Colin de Grandhomme (36 off 19) and Suryakumar Yadav (30 off 16).
Not only did the visitors do well with the ball, they also overhauled the set target with 4 wickets and 4 balls to spare. The 93 run innings (off just 52 balls) from Rahul Tripathi dominated the RPS batting.
The Perfect Catch of the Match went to Rovman Powell. The award for the Maximum Sixes as well as for the Player of the Match went to Rahul Tripathi for his 7 big sixes. Suryakumar Yadav was named the Stylish Player of the Match.
This was the sixth win in 7 matches for RPS. After an uneven start in this season of the IPL, they seem to have found form and in Rahul Tripathi they have identified something of a giant slayer! Worrying for KKR, this was their second loss on a trot. RPS and KKR now have the same number of points from the same number of games; KKR has a slight edge due to their run rate.
Delhi Daredevils face off against the Gujarat Lions today at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi. Both teams have to win to stay in the reckoning for the playoffs. While Delhi have the home advantage and would be on a high from their win against title defenders SRH, they will likely miss skipper Zaheer Khan who missed the last couple of matches because of a hamstring injury. Meanwhile, GL, with just 6 points from their 10 games, will need a near miracle to qualify.
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