Rising Pune Supergiant eased to a four-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders thanks to a superb 93 from Rahul Tripathi.
IPL scores (Kolkata)
Rising Pune Supergiant beat Kolkata Knight Riders by four wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders inns: 155-8 (Pandey 37, De Grandhomme 36, Yadav 30; Sundar 2-18, Unadkat 2-28)
Rising Pune Supergiant inns: 158-6 (Tripathi 93, Stokes 14; Woakes 3-18)
Match Report
Rising Pune Supergiant eased to a four-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders thanks to a superb 93 from Rahul Tripathi.
Having hit the fastest fifty by an RPS batsman in the IPL, from just 23 balls, the opener fell in the penultimate over as the visitors chased down KKR's 155-8 with four balls to spare.
Chris Woakes impressed for KKR, taking 3-18, but it was not enough as the win moved RPS level on points with Kolkata, who missed the chance to overtake table-topping Mumbai Indians in the IPL standings.
KKR struggled to get going after Sunil Narine was dismissed from the final ball of the first over, a wicket maiden, from Jaydev Unadkat and limped to 59-4 at the halfway stage.
Manish Pandey top-scored for the hosts with 37 before a late flourish from Colin de Grandhomme (36 from 19 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (30no from 16 balls) gave them hope despite a superb final over from Ben Stokes (1-24) tempering the flurry somewhat.
In reply, the Supergiant looked in a hurry from the outset, taking 74 from the powerplay as Tripathi and Ajinkya Rahane took the attack to Nathan Coulter-Nile, who appeared out of sorts after being struck by a bouncer while batting, and Umesh Yadav.
Yadav removed Rahane (11) and Woakes bowled both Steve Smith and Manoj Tiwary but Tripathi's assault continued.
Stokes (14) looked in good touch again following his maiden T20 century in his last game, reverse sweeping Narine for four from his second ball but the West Indian soon had his revenge, jogging round to take a return catch after a leading edge from the England all-rounder.
By that stage, Tripathi had thumped three consecutive sixes off Kuldeep Yadav and an RPS win appeared all but assured.
However, Woakes returned to dismiss Tripathi and take the game to the final over. Dan Christian thumped the second ball for six, though, to ensure there was no dramatic late twist.
