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Uthappa, Russell ensure sweet revenge for KKR
Kolkata, May 1
A stupendous unfinished fourth
wicket partnership between Robin Uthappa and Andre Russel enabled
defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) take sweet revenge on
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) with a seven wicket victory in the return leg
of the fixture in a close Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter here on
Thursday.
Replying to CSK's 165/9, KKR reached a match
deciding 169/3 with seven wickets and a ball to spare before a packed
crowd at the Eden Gardens.
Opener Robin Uthappa (80 not out;
58b, 7x4,1x6) and Andre Russell (55 not out; 32b, 4x4,4x6) put on a
rollicking 112 runs partnership of only 64 balls to settle the issue
after the hosts were reeling at 57/3 at one stage.
The victory
ensured the men in purple moved up to the third place in the table
gleaning nine points from eight matches, while CSK retained the pole
position with 12 points from eight games.
The Knights were off
to a solid start notching up 33 in four overs, courtesy skipper Gautam
Gambhir's (19;16b 0x4 2x6) two massive sixes. The former India opener
achieved a personal milestone of 3000 runs in IPL, but he fell soon
after trying to heave a Mohit Sharma delivery in the fifth over.
The
innings stuttered a bit thereafter as the hosts lost Manish Pandey (3)
and Suryakumar Yadav (2) in quick succession, but Robin Uthappa and
Jamaican Andre Russell come together to repair the damage and take the
total past the 100 run mark in 13.3 overs.
Once settled, both
batsmen shifted to top gear as they plundered 29 runs from the 15th and
16 th over, Ashish Nehra and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja being at
the receiving end respectively.
Earlier, put into bat, CSK began with a jolt losing dashing opener Dwayne Smith (0) in the very first ball of the innings.
Suresh
Raina (8; 10b 2x4), perished in the fourth over before becoming the
first batsman to get past 3,500 runs in IPL. The visitors continued
scoring at a brisk rate going past 50 in just 24 balls.
However,
KKR's 44-year-old veteran Brad Hogg (4/29) picked up the dangerous
Brendon McCullum (32;12b, 3x4 3x6) with the score reading 64/3 in just
5.1 overs.
Wickets continued to tumble as CSK were 88/5 at the halfway stage.
Dwayne
Bravo (30; 32b 4x4) and Ravindra Jadeja (24; 30b 1x4 1x6) steadied the
innings with 57-run partnership before Pawan Negi's (27; 13b, 4x4, 1x6)
blitz took them to a challenging total.
For the hosts, Andre Russell returned figures of 2/20.