Uthappa scored half century to lead his team to victory
Robin Uthappa
Opener Robin Uthappa produced a sizzling half-century as Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Chennai Super Kings by eight wickets with 12 balls in hand in their IPL match at the Eden Gardens here on Tuesday.
Uthappa smashed his way to 67 runs off 39 balls with the help of 10 fours and a six to clinch the man of the match award as KKR registered their fifth win in a row, chasing CSK’s 154/4.
Shakib al Hasan (46 not out) also played a useful innings lower down the order and it was only fitting that he hit the winning shot.The Bangladesh all-rounder sent the ball crashing over the head of CSK pacer Mohit Sharma for a boundary to finish off the game in style.
Kolkata have thus cemented their fourth spot on the table with 14 points from 12 matches. CSK remain second with 16 points.Earlier, Suresh Raina’s second half-century in as many innings propelled Chennai Super Kings to a fighting 154/4.Raina punished the spinners with great disdain slamming five sixes apart from three delectable boundaries in his 51-ball 65. The left-hander added 62 off just 36 balls with Faf du Plessis (23) in a match-turning third wicket partnership.
Put in to bat, CSK were crawling at 60/2 in 10.3 overs after IPL debutant Pat Cummins and the wily Sunil Narine took the prized scalps of Dwayne Smith (5) and Brendon McCullum (28) respectively. The boundaries dried up initially as KKR bowled tidily with Umesh Yadav and Shakib al Hasan too keeping the batsman quiet in the Powerplay overs that yielded just 35 on a helpful Eden Gardens wicket which had a greenish look to it.
Scorecard
Chennai Super Kings: D. Smith b Cummins 5, B. McCullum c SA Yadav b Narine 28, S. Raina c ten Doeschate b Chawla 65, F du Plessis (run out) 23, M.S. Dhoni (not out) 21, R. Jadeja (not out) 9. Extras (w2, nb1) 3. Total (for 4 wkts, in 20 overs) 154.
FoW: 1-5, 2-60, 3-122, 4-129.
Bowling: Shakib Al Hasan 4-0-30-0, Cummins 4-1-29-1, Yadav 4-0-29-0, Narine 4-0-24-1, Chawla 4-0-42-1.
Kolkata Knight Riders: R. Uthappa c du Plessis b Jadeja 67, G. Gambhir b Pandey 21, M. Pandey (not out) 18, Shakib Al Hasan (not out) 46. Extras (lb 3, w 1) 4. Total (for 2 wkts; in 18 overs) 156
FoW: 1-64, 2-98
Bowling: Hilfenhaus 3-0-38-0 (1w), Pandey 4-0-31-1, Sharma 3-0-28-0, Ashwin 4-0-24-0, Jadeja 3-0-23-1, Raina 1-0-9-0
( Source : PTI )
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