Narine’s bossy 42 0ff 17 and then Robin Uthappa’s half-century helped Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to put a tough score of 187 on the scoreboard but their entire effort got overshadowed by wGujarat skipper Suresh Raina’s 84. Despite rain interrupting the game for a while, the entire run chasing task turned out to be easy for Gujarat and finally, their second victory came up in the tournament by 4 wickets at the Eden Gardens.
Suresh Raina’s decision to bowl first after winning the toss worked out for the Gujarat Lions by the end of the game when runs started flowing off Skipper Suresh Raina’s bat. In order to chase down a target of 188 runs, Brendon McCullum and Aron Finch came to open the innings and gave a lightning fast start to Gujarat. The opening pair added a total of 42 runs for the first wicket within 3.3 overs before Finch was dismissed by Nathan Coulter-Nile for 31 of just 15 runs.
Suresh Raina, the Gujarat skipper, came into bat at number three and led the score chase ahead. McCullum was looking as confident as in the previous game while Raina too was leading from the front. This pair added a total of 31 runs fro the 2nd wicket. In the 7th over, Chris Woakes sent McCullum back to the pavilion after he could score33 of just 17 balls.
By then, Suresh Raina was back in his form and had gained his momentum as he continued playing big shots quite comfortably. Though the wickets kept on falling at the other end but Raina kept his cool intact and played a captain’s knock. After hitting 1 six and 5 fours, Raina played a fantastic knock of 84 runs off just 46 balls and led his team towards victory single handed. With this victory, Raina’s first half-century came up in this season but their position in the points table is still the same.
