Uthappa and Raine guide KKR to score 187 in their innings against Gujarat lions

Putting into bat after losing the toss, KKR started flamboyantly with  Narine setting the trend  hitting seven fours off 11 balls  to total 29 without loss in  first two overs.

Naraine,  who was again  promoted to open the innings, batted like a man possessed  and  punished the Gujarat bowlers- Kumar, Faulkner and Thampi  hitting all around the wicket till he was out after taking the total to 45 which included his 42  off only  17 deliveries.  While other opener and KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir remained subdued,  Narine delighted the huge Eden  crowd hitting nine fours and a sixer.

After the opening bowlers got punished by Narine, Gujarat skipper Suresh Raina brought himself  to bowl and  tasted success  .  While trying to hit Raina, Naraine mistimed and was caught by  Faulkner in  the second ball of  first over by Gujarat skipper.

The departure of Narine  brought Robin Uthappa into the creae . Uthappa and Gambhir  took up the cudgel and and  added 69 run in their partnership  when Gambhir  was caught by   Raina off Faulkner  after making 33 off 28 balls which included  two fours and a sixer.

Raina brought jadeja into attack and  both the spinners checked the KKR run rate considerably as the hosts score board read 141 for 2  after 15 0vers .

Gambhir’s exit  saw test star Rabin Uthappa took up the responsibility  and  shouldered it well  . Batting judiciously and at the same time aggressively, Uthappa emerged highest scorer for KKR making     72 off  48 deliveries . He hit eight fours and two over bounderies before he was caught by Brendon Mccullum off  Pravin Kumar.

Apart from Uthappa, Narine and Gambhir, Manish Pandey  and Yusuf Pathan also chipped in with 24 and 11 not out respectively.

None of the Gujarat bowlers could perform worth mentioning. However, Jadeja , though did not get any wicket, checked the run arte to some extent  and conceded 31 runs off 4 overs.(EOM)