Hosts Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Rising Pune Supergiants by 8 wickets and 24 balls to spare by Duckworth-Lewis method. KKR managed to restrict RPS to 103/6 in 17.4 overs before rain halted the proceedings.
KKR were set a 66-run target in nine overs in the rain-hit match. This is KKR's seventh win this season and they climb to the second spot in the points table.
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Zampa to bowl. Five wides! What a start after the six-wicket haul last match. He's made it even easier for KKR to walk past this. They take it easy, run four singles and go past the target with 24 balls remaining. Pathan didn't muck around -- finishes the match quickly with a 18-ball 37.
KKR 57/2 (4.0) (M. Pandey 13 off 7 | Y. Pathan 36 off 15)
Leggie M. Ashwin's into the attack. Pathan's going after everything here. Slow, wide and Pathan goes for big swing -- gets a thick and a boundary. Six! Ashwin continues to persist with wide line and Pathan's lofted with considerable ease over the ropes. Target is well within reach, just two big hits away.
Cricket and rain...Duckworth-Lewis is great, but with <10 overs to face, surely the full 10 wickets is unreasonable? >#KKRvRPS
— Hylton Gudmanz (@hyltongudmanz) >May 14, 2016
KKR 44/2 (3.0) (M. Pandey 12 off 6 | Y. Pathan 26 off 10)
Six! That's off the bat at 134 kmph and flat -- a Pathan special. And another six, this time more straight and with more elevation. Now, a four. He's predicting the amount of turn and taking advantage of the fielding restrictions. Ashwin bowls it slower and up to the batsman and the result is same. Another boudnary. This is the over -- 22, one-third of the target, came off this over.
KKR 22/2 (2.0) (M. Pandey 11 off 5 | Y. Pathan 6 off 5)
Dinda to bowl. Four! A bit short and Pathan's smashed it in front of midwicket. He's getting the ball to swing away from the right handers -- and the third man region's seeing a lot of traffic. Four! Pandey gets a thick outside edge on a wide one, and that runs away for a boundary -- vital runs, this. Spin might be the way to go for Dhoni. 13 off this.
KKR 9/2 (1.0) (M. Pandey 3 off 2 | Y. Pathan 1 off 2)
R. Ashwin to bowl the first. What a start, four off the first. Uthappa's crunched it through the covers. Out! Ashwin floats a wide and there's big turn. It goes past him on the leg side and he's well away from the crease. An easy stumping for Dhoni. Manish Pandey's here. Overpitched and Pandey's made decent contact on that -- 3 runs. Out! This time it doesn't turn and traps him lbw. What a start after the rain -- RPS is really into this.
KKR openers — Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa — are in the middle. We'll have three powerplay overs and four bowlers can bowl two overs each.
Update:
— If there's no more rain, the play will resume at 11:45 p.m. KKR require 66 to win.
— Sorry folks! No good news, the covers are still on. The umpires will inpect playing conditions at 11:20 p.m.
— The rain has reduced but not enough to get play going again. The next inspection is at 11 p.m.
— The rain has stopped and the next inspection will happen at 10:45 p.m.
— There's relentless rain at the Gardens and no signs of it subsiding at the moment.
21:50 hrs IST- The rain has reduced to a drizzle but it's very persistent. That'll need to clear up before we get back on >#KKRvRPS
— MOHAMMADKASHIF BUTT (@786mushtaq) >May 14, 2016
— It's raining in Kolkata, the covers come in at full speed to keep the playing area dry.
RPS 102/6 (17.0) (M.S. Dhoni 7 off 18 | R. Ashwin 0 off 0)
Six! Perera steps down and whacks it over long on. Finally, one of the batsmen make decent connection. Out! This time Chawla bowls a googly and Perera mistimes it. Pandey settles under that one takes it inches away from the rope. R. Ashwin's here. Now, RPS will have to revise their target to 130.
RPS 96/5 (16.0) (M.S. Dhoni 7 off 18 | T. Perera 7 off 9)
This time, only two runs. Dhoni's striking them at 38.8 -- that's low even by today's Test standards.
RPS 94/5 (15.0) (M.S. Dhoni 6 off 16 | T. Perera 6 off 5)
Another tight over from Chawla -- he's given away only 15 off his three overs. Run rate is still above 6. And with Dhoni struggling to negotiate the spin, RPS will be happy to cross 140.
RPS 89/5 (14.0) (M.S. Dhoni 5 off 14 | T. Perera 2 off 1)
Out! Confusion in the middle. Dhoni gets bat on a wide one and runs straightaway but Pathan gets caught in the middle and gets run out. He wasn't expecting Dhoni to run for that. RPS ship is sinking slowly, five off this.
Gambhir is fighting Dhoni's strongest things ever- "Calmness & Patience". >#KKRvRPS
— Harry Saint (@Harry__Saint) >May 14, 2016
RPS 84/4 (13.0) (M.S. Dhoni 5 off 10 | Irfan Pathan 6 off 7)
RPS are content getting the singles off the spinners and rightly so. They'll look to get 6 or 7 off every over till the 15th or 16th and then try to step on the gas. The run rate's just a shade above 6.
RPS 78/4 (12.0) (M.S. Dhoni 1 off 6 | Irfan Pathan 4 off 5)
More spin, Sunil Narine to bowl. The pressure is showing on the batsmen who're finding it difficult to get runs even off the loose ones. They manage to get 4 off this one.
RPS 74/4 (11.0) (M.S. Dhoni 0 off 3 | Irfan Pathan 0 off 1)
Gambhir's go to man Piyush Chawla to bowl the next. He's getting a LOT of turn off this wicket. The batsment are happy camping on the back foot and negotiating the turn off the pitch. Out! Bailey gives the charge and gets beaten. But he's also halfway down the pitch and Uthappa has very little to do. Gambhir making a statement here -- has four fielders around Dhoni. We have an interesting passage of play ahead of us.
RPS 70/3 (10.0) (George Bailey 30 off 25 | Irfan Pathan 0 off 1)
Rajpoot to continue. He starts off with two slower ones -- clearly the go to ball in this slow-sluggish wicket. Out! Tiwary tries to guide one to third man but only manages to edge it to Uthappa. Irfan's got a promotion in his first match this season. A superb over from the yound pacer -- he's given away 7 in this over.
The question on everyone's mind:
Why Dhoni doesn't come to bat early >#DisappointedFan>#KKRvRPS
— MSDian Shubham Dogra (@Shubham513) >May 14, 2016
RPS 63/2 (9.0) (George Bailey 26 off 22 | Saurabh Tiwary 12 off 10)
Six! The first of the innings, Bailey steps down and hits it clean straight and just manages to clear the ropes. Shakib immediately shortens his length. They're happy taking singles after the six. Another four-single-and-a- boundary over. Ten off this one.
RPS 52/2 (8.0 ) (George Bailey 18 off 18 | Saurabh Tiwary 10 off 8)
22-year-old Anikit Rajpoot's introduced into the attack. Four off an inside edge! Rajpoot follows Bailey who tries to make room and play it on the off side. He only manages to get an inside edge on it. A boundary and four singles off this one.
RPS 45/2 (7.0 ) (George Bailey 12 off 14 | Saurabh Tiwary 8 off 6)
Shakib to continue. He's bowling slow and tossing them up nicely up to the batsmen who are content taking singles. Four! He floats another slow one and Bailey steps down to strike it clean over the covers. Top shot, this.
RPS 37/2 (6.0 ) (George Bailey 6 off 10 | Saurabh Tiwary 6 off 4)
Four! Bailey finally manages to get one in the gap. He's able to make decent connection and smashed one on the up, a rising ball from the good length, through the covers. And TIwary follows that with another boundary -- RPS finally get a move on. They get 10 off this one.
RPS 27/2 (5.0 ) (George Bailey 1 off 7 | Saurabh Tiwary 1 off 1)
Out! Khawaja's struggle comes to an end. He tries to slog-sweep his way out but gets caught at deep midwicket. Suryakumar Yadav didn't move an inch for the catch -- it was hit straight to him. Jharkhand-born Saurabh TIwary's here. KKR tightening the screws -- this over yields only 3 runs.
RPS 24/1 (4.0 ) (George Bailey 0 off 4 | Usman Khawaja 20 off 15)
Four! Wide and full and Khawaja gets it over the mid off fielder -- very easy on the eyes. Big appeal from the 'keeper and bowler but ump says 'not out'. It was a rising delivery from Morkel and Khawaja was trying to run it down to third man. Snicko suggests that there might be a faint edge on that one -- lucky escape for Khawaja. Only five off this one.
RPS 19/1 (3.0 ) (George Bailey 0 off 2 | Usman Khawaja 15 off 11)
Khawaja makes the move -- steps down and swings his bat across for a four in the midwicket region. The pitch's not fast as expected, now Gambhir's removed the slips and got more fielders in front of the bat. Out! Rahane perishes, playing across the line. It was full and on off-middle, Rahane tries to play across, misses it and gets bowled. The stumps go for a walk. Bailey's the next man in.
Pic is the proof that Gautam Gambhir can Smile too. >#KKRvRPS>#KKR>pic.twitter.com/d9J3P8Hjkf
— Shailendra Ranawat (@ShailSaa) >May 14, 2016
RPS 11/0 (2.0 ) (Ajinkya Rahane 1 off 4 | Usman Khawaja 8 off 9)
Morkel bowls a front-foot no ball. Free hit! Khawaja cashes in on it -- waits on the back foot and pulls it easily behind square leg. The South African makes a nice comeback, beats Khawaja a couple of times and he's hitting the top part of the bat. And good pace, too. Both seamers are have got their radar right tonight.
RPS 4/0 (1.0 ) (Ajinkya Rahane 0 off 3 | Usman Khawaja 3 off 3)
Andre Russell to bowl the first over. Usman Khawaja and Ajinkya Rahane make a steady start -- only 4 off the first one. Russell's on the mark straightaway, bowling stump-to-stump and over 140 kmph on most occassions.
M.S. Dhoni's won the toss and RPS will bat first. KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir says if he had won the toss, he would've batted first as well. M. Ashwin makes a comeback; Irfan Pathan will play his first match this season. The KKR have included Sunil Narine and Ankit Rajpoot, replacing Bradd Hogg and Umesh Yadav.
