Knights slay Supergiant, go top

Pune, April 26 

Robin Uthappa made a mockery of Rising Pune Supergiant’s bowling attack to take Kolkata Knight Riders closer towards a play-off berth with a convincing seven-wicket win in an IPL match here today.

Uthappa struck a match-winning 87 off just 47 balls and was ably supported by skipper Gautam Gambhir, who made 62 off 46 deliveries, as two-time champions KKR regained their spot on top of the standings with six wins from eight games.

While Uthappa hit seven boundaries and six hits over the fence, Gambhir’s innings was laced with six fours and one six. The duo stitched 158 runs off just 85 balls for the second wicket to help KKR chase down the 183-run target with 11 balls to spare.

Earlier, Steve Smith led from the front with an unbeaten 51 to lift Pune to a challenging 182/5. Smith’s half-century came off 37 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six. Ajinkya Rahane (46 off 41 balls), Rahul Tripathi (38 off 23), MS Dhoni (23 off 11) and Daniel Christian (16 off 6) also made useful contributions for the home team.

Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for KKR with figures of 2/31. Chasing the target, Sunil Narine (15 off 9 balls) once again got KKR off to a brisk start before he was run out in the third over.

Then Uthappa and Gambhir joined hands and took control of the chase with a bit of luck in their favour. — PTI