Robin Uthappa showed no signs of slowing down as a superb half-century set up a fifth consecutive win for Kolkata Knight Riders over Chennai Super Kings and considerably brightened up their chances of reaching the playoffs.
The classy 28-year-old carried on his mesmerising form which has seen him play seven back-to-back knocks of 40-plus, making a quickfire 67 in 39 balls and setting the initial tempo as Kolkata chased down the modest target of 153.
Kolkata are now tied with Rajasthan on 14 points but below them on net run rate despite their emphatic eight-wicket victory. They now require one win from their two remaining matches to book their place in the knockout stage of the tournament.
After Uthappa had laid the foundation, Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan provided the finishing touches with a 21-ball unbeaten 46 (6×4, 2×6) and his 34-run stand with Manish Pandey (18 no) gave Kolkata the win with 12 balls to spare.
Uthappa’s innings was not without blemish, and he was twice lucky in the initial overs. Ravi Ashwin dropped a sitter in slips off Ben Hilfenhaus’ before Suresh Raina could not get to a difficult edge at the same position in the third over from Mohit Sharma.
The reprieves proved costly for Super Kings, who did not have the best day on the field. Even while batting, only Suresh Raina’s 51- ball 65 provided some substance to their total of 154-4.
From there on, Uthappa never looked back as he continued his dream run. With skipper Gautam Gambhir, he first added 64 runs for the opening wicket.
If there was any danger of Kolkata innings crumbling from that point, Shakib put it to rest as he boldly smashed the bowlers to all parts of the ground in his 21-ball knock that featured six boundaries and two sixes.
And after collecting yet another Man of the Match award, Uthappa said: “I’ve enjoyed batting here on this ground. The crowd is fantastic and I have always done well here. It's sort of a lucky ground for me.
“The ball was coming on well, and the dew factor also helped us. But I just wanted to play every ball on its merit and maintain the shape of my shots. When you play T20, you tend to lose shape technically because you want to hit the ball hard. That’s what I have been trying to avoid, to not lose shape in the first six overs.”
Earlier, Raina’s second half-century in as many innings propelled Chennai to a fighting 154-4. The left-hander was severe on both spinners and pace bowlers as he hit five sixes and three boundaries in his 65.
Put into bat, CSK were struggling at 60/2 in 10.3 overs after IPL debutant Pat Cummins removed Dwayne Smith in his first over and Sunil Narine then dismissed Brendon McCullum for 28.
It was Raina’s 62-run partnership in just 36 balls with Faf du Plessis (23) that upped the run rate for Chennai.
Narain was once again the most successful bowler for Kolkata, picking up 1-24 in his four overs despite being hit by Raina for a six off his first ball.
