Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Wednesday registered a tricky 3-wicket win against Delhi Capitals (DC) in Sharjah to storm into the final of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. While chasing a small total of 136, Eoin Morgan & Co. went through a horrendous middle-order collapse after a rollicking start. However, following a compact tussle with DC, the Knight Riders came out victorious.
KKR’s chase begin in a phenomenal fashion as they scored more than half of the runs before the15th over. But their middle-order started stuttering in death overs as they lost 6 wickets in four overs. With 6 needed to win off the final two balls, Rahul Tripathi clobbered Ashwin for six over long-off and Kolkata took the game home with one ball to spare.
The KKR players, who looked extremely nervous while wickets were falling, roared in joy and rushed to the ground to celebrate the win. One of them was opener Venkatesh Iyer who rocketed towards Tripathi to give him a hug.
Explaining the entire scenario to KKR mentor David Hussey in a chat, Iyer said, “Fifty celebrations, I don’t celebrate a lot. My ways are different and there was a task in hand to score more runs and get the team through. So, it is just a thumbs up and get back to work again. But I really celebrated when Tripathi hit that six because we desperately needed that big hit. I couldn’t control my emotions and ran through in with my chappals and just hugged him.”
{{/usCountry}}Explaining the entire scenario to KKR mentor David Hussey in a chat, Iyer said, “Fifty celebrations, I don’t celebrate a lot. My ways are different and there was a task in hand to score more runs and get the team through. So, it is just a thumbs up and get back to work again. But I really celebrated when Tripathi hit that six because we desperately needed that big hit. I couldn’t control my emotions and ran through in with my chappals and just hugged him.”
{{/usCountry}}Prior to the sudden batting collapse, KKR were off to a flier; courtesy of the innings played by Shubman Gill and Iyer. The duo stitched a 96-run stand to set the base for the chase against Delhi in Sharjah.
“I was not chasing 136, I just went out there and wanted to bat. I wanted to play six overs and then see what the situation was. That thought brought the best and hopefully, I keep going,” Iyer further said.
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Following the penultimate-ball finish, KKR made their way to the third final in the IPL history. They will face Chennai Super Kings on Friday in Dubai.