Abu Dhabi: Rajasthan Royals held their nerves in extreme pressure situation to pip Kolkata Knight Riders in a nail-biting Super Over finish in a fifth round encounter of the Indian Premier League here on Tuesday.
It is the first match in the tournament that went to the wire with both main innings and the Super Over scores ending in a tie. Rajasthan Royals were adjudged winners as they hit 18 fours and a six across two innings compared to KKR’s nine fours and three sixes.
In the Super Over, KKR batting first scored 11 off James Faulkner with Manish Pandey getting a six. In reply, Steve Smith showed his cricketing acumen with a soft tap off the last delivery from Sunil Narine towards extra cover to get two runs which would have sealed the match in their favour.
Having set a target of 153 in 20 overs for KKR, the Royals bowlers kept their calm at the death as they restricted Gautam Gambhir's men to 152 for eight in 20 overs.
It was easily the most exciting contest of the UAE leg, with KKR needed 12 runs off the last over bowled by Kane Richardson. With three to get of the final delivery, Shakib al Hasan (29 n.o.) could manage only two runs as the scores were tied at 152.
This was after a splendid penultimate over bowled by ‘birthday boy’ Faulkner (3/11 in 2 overs) in which he got the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav (31), Robin Uthappa (0) and R. Vinay Kumar (0) when they needed 16 off the last two.
Scoreboard
Rajasthan Royals: A. Rahane c Yadav b Vinay 72, K. Nair b Vinay Kumar 1, S. Samson b Shakib 20, S. Watson (run out) 33, S. Binny c Bisla b Morkel 0, S. Smith (not out) 19, J. Faulkner (not out) 2.
Extras (w5) 5. Total (for five wickets in 20 overs) 152. FoW: 1-13, 2-54, 3-118, 4-128, 5-145. Bowling: Vinay 4-0-30-2, Morkel 4-0-40-1, Narine 4-0-28-0, Shakib 4-0-23-1, Kallis 1-0-4-0, Chawla 3-0-27-0.
Kolkata Knight Riders: G. Gambhir c I. Abdulla b Bhatia 45, M.S. Bisla c Nair b Richardson 3, J.H. Kallis c Smith b Tambe 13, M.K. Pandey lbw b Tambe 19, S.A. Yadav c Smith b Faulkner 31, Shakib Al Hasan (not out) 29, R.V. Uthappa b Faulkner 0, R. Vinay Kumar b Faulkner 0, P. Chawla (run out), Sunil Narine (not out) 1.
Extras (nb 2, w 6, b 1, lb 2) 11. Total (for eight wickets in 20 overs) 152. FoW: 1-21, 2-49, 3-85, 4-88, 5-137, 6-141, 7-141, 8-146, Bowling: S. Binny 1-0-7-0, K. Richardson 4-0-2-1, J. Faulkner 2-0-11-3, Iqbal Abdulla 2-0-17-0, S. Watson 3-0-26-0, R. Bhatia 4-0-29-1, P. Tambe 4-0-31-2
