IPL 2020: CSK restrict KKR to 167; Tripathi scores 51-ball 81

Tripathi's 51-ball knock had eight fours and three sixes

csk-kkr-iplt20-com Sam Curran of Chennai Super Kings celebrates the wicket of Eoin Morgan of Kolkata Knight Riders during the IPL 2020 match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi | iplt20.com

Chennai Super Kings staged a remarkable comeback after opener Rahul Tripathi's 51-ball 81 to bowl out Kolkata Knight Riders for 167 in the Indian Premier League in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Batting first, KKR lost three wickets in the last over with Dwayne Bravo removing two of them.

Bravo, a CSK veteran, celebrated his 37th birthday by returning impressive figures of 3/37 in his quota of four overs.

Tripathi enjoyed his promotion to the top with an excellent fifty but Chennai Super Kings bowlers applied the brakes to bundle out Kolkata Knight Riders.

Tripathi picked up from where he left off against Delhi Capitals and raced to his fifth IPL fifty in 31 balls to give KKR a solid foundation after Dinesh Karthik called it right at the toss.

At 93 for two at the midway stage, KKR looked set for a big score but Bravo struck after that.

Leg-spinner Karn Sharma (2/25), Shardul Thakur (2/28), Sam Curran (2/26) claimed two wickets each as the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side bounced back in the back 10 by taking eight wickets while giving away just 74 runs.

On a Sheikh Zayed Stadium pitch that seemed to slow down, Tripathi played a risk-free knock and maintained a healthy run-rate.

Karthik made a baffling decision by sending Sunil Narine ahead of their best batsman, Eoin Morgan, at No. 4.

However, Narine did his job with a nine-ball 17 before being dismissed by an excellent combined effort by a diving Ravindra Jadeja and Faf du Plessis.

Morgan started with a classical cover drive boundary but Curran cut short the with a bouncer that climbed in and took a faint edge behind the stumps.

Thakur, who had given the first breakthrough by dismissing an in-form Shubman Gill (11), claimed the big wicket of Andre Russell with a cross-seam short delivery as the KKR dazzler struggled to get going. 

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