IPL: KKR set target of 156 runs for Rising Pune Supergiant

After KKR  top orders except Manish Pandey, who scored  highest for the home team tonight making 37 off 32 deliveries  and had four hitting to the fence beside a sixer, failed to click,  Grandhomme and Surya, who came into the team in place of Robin Uthappa , delighted a packed Eden Gardens  hitting all around the wickets.

Yadav finally remained unbeaten  when their innings came to an end. 

KKR’s  gamble of opening with Sunil Narine  failed on Wednesday.

The West Indian,  who proved his mettle providing a solid start to their innings in the two matches at Eden earlier, could not negotiate with Unadkat who started the Pune attack and was caught and bowled by Unadkat in the last ball of very first over with no run on the score board.

KKR, who were forced to keep their fulcrum in their batting line up with Robin Uthappa being out of the team, received  another blow soon when Sheldon Jackson, who came one down, got hit wicket trying to play Washington Sundar after making 10 runs .

Inspired with the success, Washington continued to bowl with venom  and was awarded soon when KKR captain Gautma Gambhir  became his victim in the sixth over.

After scoring two successive  boundaries, Gambhir failed to connect a faster delivery from Washington and was caught by Rahane  at deep mid wicket. Gambhir scored 24 hitting  3 bounderies and a sixer off 19 deliveries. 

Yusuf Pathan, who failed to live up to the expectation in this IPL except in one match, cut a sorry figure again as he fell to the guile of Imran Tahir being adjudged leg before after  scoring only four. KKR after ten overs reached 59 losing four wickets.

KKR  lost  their next two wickets, those of  C de Grandhomme and Manish Pandey, both of whom played  pivotal roles for the home side on Wednesday.

While Pandey made 37 of 32 balls with four boundaries and an over boundary before being caught by Rahane off Christian, Grandhomme  gave a catch to  Washinton while playing a Unadkad delivery.

Pune bowlers bowled reasonably well . Unadkad and Washington bagged two wickets each conceding  28 and 18 runs off 4 and 2 overs respectively.

(Reporting by Manik Banerjee)