Pune: Suryakumar Yadav hit a brilliant fifty as Kolkata Knight Riders continued their rampaging run by notching up a two-wicket win against Rising Pune Supergiants in a last-over IPL thriller here on Sunday.
Rising Pune Supergiants posted a competitive 160-5, courtesy a superb 52-ball 67-run innings by opener Ajinkya Rahane, after KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to field.
Chasing the target, the visitors rode on a 49-ball 60 by Suryakumar Yadav, who shared a 51-run third-wicket stand with Yusuf Pathan (36) to set the platform for the chase but Pune's Thisara Perera picked up two wickets in the fag end of the match to almost derail their chase.
In the end, it was Umesh Yadav who blasted a six of the third ball of the last over to take Kolkata home, reaching 162-8, with three balls to spare at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
It was Pune's fourth successive loss in five matches. Defending the total, Pune struck the first blow in the very first ball when Albie Morkel trapped Robin Uthappa in front of wicket with a fullish length delivery.
The Supergiants dismissed the other opener Gambhir also cheaply in the third over when he tried to steal a second run after playing a shot off Albie towards the midwicket area. It was an alert Sourabh Tiwary, who came up with a sharp fielding effort and threw the ball to wicket-keeper Dhoni, who took off the bails despite a dive from Gambhir.
In the seventh over, an offcutter from Rajat Bhatia saw the end of Shakib Al Hasan, who inside edged it to his stumps as Kolkata slipped to 60 for three.
Suryakumar and Pathan then tried to steady the innings. Pathan blasted M Ashwin in the 14th over to bring up the 100 for his team but he was dismissed in the next over when Bhatia trapped him leg before wicket.
In the 16th over, M Ashwin struck with a googly as Suryakumar was adjudged lbw. New man Andre Russell then blasted a couple of sixes off Ankit Sharma to reduce the required run-rate but the West Indies allrounder was dismissed by Perera in the 18th over when he was caught by Faf du Plessis at long-on.
Sathish blasted one for a six in the first ball of the next over but two ball later he was cleaned up by Albie as Kolkata further slumped to 151-7.
Needing seven off six balls, Perera dismissed Piyush Chawla (8) in the second ball but Umesh sent the bowler over long-on to earn Kolkata's third successive and fourth overall win in five matches.
Earlier, Rahane cracked four boundaries and three sixes in his 52-ball 67-run innings to anchor the Pune innings. Steven Smith (31) also contributed and added 56 runs with Rahane for the second wicket.
For Kolkata, Sunil Narine (1/32), Shakib Al Hasan (1/14), R Sathish (1/20) and Umesh Yadav (1/16) picked up one wicket each.
Put into bat, the Supergiants lost their first wicket in the fourth over when opener Faf du Plessis (4) was cleaned up by Shakib. However, other opener Rahane and Smith stitched a 56-run partnership off 50 balls to steady the ship but the Australian was run-out when he went well down and the bowler Sathish whipped off the bails.
New batsman Thisara Perera (12 off 9 balls) too could not stay longer as he was dismissed in the 15th over when he tried to play a cross-batted shot only to see his stumps disturbed by a slowish Sathish delivery.
Albie Morkel (16 off 9 balls) then joined Rahane and stepped the gas. It was the Mumbaikar who first blasted Piyush Chawla in the 16th over. He then picked Umesh Yadav for the same treatment in the next over.
However, Rahane was dismissed by the Narine in the first ball of the next over when the West Indies spinner caught and bowled the opener.
Albie then blasted successive sixes off Narine before becoming a prey of Yadav in the 19th over. Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (23 off 12 balls) then provided some fireworks, plundering a six and a couple of fours in the last over, to take Pune across the 150-mark.
