Kolkata Knight Riders have secured this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) Final spot against Chennai Super Kings as KKR won a thriller against Delhi Capital by 3 wickets in the Qualifier 2 at Sharjah Wednesday.
Rahul Tripathi smashed a six to take KKR into the title battle, and it was another last over sorrow for DC. The openers, Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer, put on a 96-run stand for Eoin Morgan's team.
However, things changed dramatically when DC bowlers took four wickets in a row to force the contest into the final over.
Iyer scored his third half-century to put KKR in command, but after he was dismissed for 55, Delhi Capitals stormed back into the game.
Nitish Rana, who came in at number three, looked daring in the middle throughout his 12-ball stint. As he attempted to take on Avesh Khan, he smashed a six off Axar Patel and was subsequently dropped by Ravichandran Ashwin at the third man region.
Anrich Nortje struck the left-hander with a crisp bouncer, sending him back to the pavilion.
Gill (46) was four runs short of a well-deserved half-century when he edged one to Rishabh Pant behind the wickets.
Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine all perished for a duck. With KKR needing seven runs to win, Ashwin was assigned to deliver the final over.
In his first delivery, Ashwin gave Rahul Tripathi a single and then bowled a dot ball to Shakib.
On the third delivery, Ashwin trapped Shakib right in front of the stumps and on the very next ball, dismissed Sunil Narine for a golden duck.
Rahul Tripathi then finished the game off with a six over long-off to send his side into the final.
Earlier, asked to bar first, Delhi posted 135/5 in 20 overs, as Shakib conceded 28 runs in his quota of four overs, and remained wicketless.
On other days this would've registered as an economical bowling figure but Shakib Wednesday proved to be the most expensive Kolkata bowler.
Alongside Sunil Narine, Shakib also went wicketless and the Bangladeshi's only other contribution was taking the catch to dismiss Shikhar Dhawan.
The IPL 2021 final will be played in Dubai on Friday.
