Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) continued on their topsy-turvy ride in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) with a 10-run win over three times champions Chennai Super Kings on Thursday at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

Opener Rahul Tripathi with his knock of 81 runs was the star of the night. Despite a middle-order collapse, Tripathi’s knock helped Kolkata in posting 167 on the board. His effort with the bat was followed by the KKR bowlers as they restricted CSK to 157/5.

Electing to bat first for the first time since 2015, KKR were off to a commendable start despite losing some early wickets. In-form Gill (11 off 12) was the first one to depart at 37/1 followed by Nitish Rana (9) at 87/2.

However, with Tripathi at the middle, Kolkata looked destined for a big score as they crossed the 100-run mark in the 12th over. Tripathi slammed eight fours and three maximums at Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, until Bravo came in and finally dismissed Tripathi in the 17th over with the help of Shane Watson.

But by the 14th over, CSK checked KKR with regular wickets as Morgan fell cheaply for seven off 10 followed by Russell who could only make two.

Dinesh Karthik 12 off 11, Pat Cummins 17 off nine as both collected 14 till the 18th over. MS Dhoni once again made a flying move to dismiss Shivam Mavi (0). Dwayne Bravo’s 3/37 made it even memorable on his birthday.

However, Kolkata was successful in restricting CSK to 157 for loss of five wickets. Faf du Plessis could only make 17 off 10 while Watson made 50 in 40 balls. Chennai were then in desperate need of 67 runs and the pressure ultimately told on skipper Dhoni, and he departed after making 11 off 12 balls, bowled by Varun Chakravarthy. His dismissal shut all hopes for his team.

Kedar Jadhav (7 not out) and Ravindra Jadeja (21 not out) couldn’t be of much help, and that resulted in CSK’s fourth loss in six matches.

Kolkata effected some changes, with Shubman Gill and Tripathi opening the batting. While Eoin Morgan and Andre Russell failed to impress, Pat Cummins helped the team to reach a respectable score of 167.

Brief scores: KKR 167 all out in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 81, Sunil Narine 17; Dwayne Bravo 3/37) beat CSK 157/5 wkts in 20 overs (Shane Watson 50, Ambati Rayudu 30; Andre Russell 1/18) by 10 runs

With IANS inputs