IPL 10, Match 41, Who Said What: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rising Pune Supergiant

Playing in Kolkata is never easy it has always been the fortress for the Kolkata Knight Riders, they know the wicket, have a well-suited line-up that has over the years had the better of best teams. Today, though, they were playing the Rising Pune Supergiant, the team which has turned things around in the second part of the tournament.

You know luck is on your side when you win the toss on a ground where it makes a difference. Chasing is always the preferred advantageous option at the Eden Garden and Steve Smith chose to bowl first. Without Robin Uthappa, the KKR batting looked incomplete and it proved to be that. Gautam Gambhir did get off to a start but no batsman could get the big inning nor a substantial partnership and they settled for 155.

Rahul Tripathi was once again the man who answered the call for his team coming in to bat as the opener with Ajinkya Rahane he batted right through the innings and while no other batsman made a major contribution led them to the doorsteps of victory before falling – he was 7 short of a hundred as the team needed 6 runs and the formalities were honoured by Daniel Christian in the last over.

Thus RPS now jump to the third spot in the points table while KKR have lost their second consecutive game and this would worry Gautam Gambhir & Co.

Skipper Steve Smith was pleased with the effort his team put up and why not they are now well on course to qualify for the playoffs. His bowlers are getting the wickets and batsmen are winning games single handedly, if it was Stokes in the last game Tripathi rose to the occasion this time.

Smith said: It’s been a good run for us. It’s been a good team for us. Tripathi – hasn’t he been a revelation for us? The bowlers really have done an exceptional job for us. In fact quite a few different guys stand up and help us get past the winning line. We went hard with the new ball and try and put as many runs in the powerplay. Tripathi took on the bowlers and unfortunate that he hasn’t got a hundred. Hopefully we will record few more wins and be there come the play-offs time.

KKR and Gambhir now have some thinking to do, Sunil Narine at the top approach has failed in the last few innings and they need to correct it, their batsmen apart from the top order aren’t getting runs and that again is a concern heading into the business end of the tournament.

Gambhir said: Obviously, it is a long tournament and these things will happen (on Uthappa’s injury). But it was an opportunity for some of the other guys to try and show what they have got. That’s how we look at these things. We thought Robin had a niggle and we did not want to take a chance with three more games and playoffs to go. Till the time you are not there in the playoffs, you are not there in the playoffs. Obviously, wherever you are in the table it does not really matter. We played some decent bit of cricket today. Taking the game to the last over was a good effort. But I still think it was not a 150 wicket, we should have got 180. 150-155 always makes it a 50-50 game. One big innings like Tripathi and that takes the game away from you. Trying to be positive and trying to be sensible as well should have helped us get a good score here. We played a lot of dot balls, especially after 6 overs. And we need to rectify that. If you play dot balls and lose wickets, you don’t take the game forward. We still have to qualify till the time you qualify, we need to be positive. It’s not do or die as of now but we need to pull up our socks.

Though this 26-year-old played a magnificent knock had a very pleasing smile on his face answering questions in the post-match presentation. He was happy he could do it for the team and mentioned that he was eager to make it count and convert his knock this time having had starts and failed before this game.

Rahul Tripathi the Man of the Match said: I enjoyed my batting today. I was getting good starts, but was not able to convert it. Happy that my team won today. I’m just trying to middle the ball, trying to concentreate on the wicket and not on the outside. I’m happy that I’m able to do well. I’m just watching the ball, hitting and it is coming off well. Yes! I hit six sixes twice in the local tournament(*smiles*). I’m happy that I’m doing well and hopefully I will continue hitting. My role was just to play till the end. The coach and Smithy told me to be there till the end, so I was doing it ball by ball. The ball was coming on nicely and I tried enjoying myself out there in the middle.