Kolkata Knight Riders batter Rahul Tripathi was confident to take his team over the line as they beat Delhi Capitals by three wickets at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Wednesday by three wickets.
KKR should have cruised to the target of 136 runs as they needed 11 more runs to win off the last 21 balls.
However, Kagiso Rabada conceded only one run in the 18th over and also got the big wicket of Dinesh Karthik. Subsequently, Anrich Nortje conceded only three runs in the penultimate over and accounted for KKR skipper Eoin Morgan.
Seven runs were then needed off the final over and KKR was under the pump after Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine on consecutive balls and the equation boiled down to six runs off the final two balls.
However, Rahul Tripathi kept his cool and smashed Ravichandran Ashwin’s carrom ball over the long-off boundary. In fact, Tripathi had also found it difficult to get going as he was on six runs off 10 balls but got the all-important strike on the penultimate ball.
Tripathi, who is known to bat selflessly and often hits the ground running for KKR, was phlegmatic in the end when it mattered the most.
Rahul Tripathi said after the game, “It feels great. The win for the team was very important. We had one or two tough overs and I never thought it would go so deep. Glad we won the game. Rabada bowled the 18th over really well, but I knew that I had to just connect one. The plan was to take a two if there was a possibility. If it was two, we were running, otherwise it was going to be me. It was difficult to straightaway get singles and boundaries for the new batsmen. It was keeping low and it was difficult to hit. I believed in myself and knew it was just one hit away. It has been a great journey for us after the first phase. We believed in ourselves and the approach given by Eoin and the coach helped us with the positive approach”.
Tripathi has been in good form with the bat in the second phase of the tournament and he will look to continue the same. KKR will play CSK in the IPL 2021 final on Friday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
