Rookie batsman Rahul Tripathi played a sensational 93-run knock on Wednesday to take Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS) to a four-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) at Eden Gardens. Thanks to Tripathi's 52-ball blinder, the visiting team got home with four balls to spare. The 26-year-old Tripathi, who made IPL debut this season, showed fine composure as he held on despite wickets falling around him -- Ajinkya Rahane (11), Steve Smith (9), Manoj Tiwary (8), last match hero Ben Stokes (14) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (5).
Dhoni was yet again foxed by chinaman Kuldeep Yadav. In the first RPS vs KKR contest, the former India captain was stumped. In the return leg, Dhoni edged one to the wicketkeeper Sheldon Jackson.
Interestingly, Dhoni did not wait for the umpire's decision and left the crease as soon as the Kolkata team appealed.
Earlier, Rising Pune Supergiant dished out a tidy bowling performance to restrict KKR to a modest total. Put in to bat, KKR found the going tough at their backyard and suffered their worst start of the season to be struggling at 55 for four inside 10 overs.
The duo of Manish Pandey (37 off 32) and Colin de Grandhomme (36 off 19) revived KKR innings with a 48-run fifth wicket partnership off 30 balls.
Unadkat returned with excellent figures of 4-1-28-2, while 17-year-old Washington Sundar too was impressive in his 2/18 from two overs.