A final date with Chennai Super Kings it is!

Kolkata Knight Riders have made it to the summit clash of IPL 2021 after a nerve-wracking win over Delhi Capitals in Sharjah on Wednesday!

Needing six runs off the last two balls of the match, Rahul Tripathi sealed the win for the Knights with a maximum. KKR were cruising till the 17th over and barely looked in trouble in their 136-run chase. But a massive slump, where they lost 6 wickets for just 17 runs, saw the course of the match changing in quick time!

In the last over itself, KKR lost Shakib Al Hasan and Sunil Narine for consecutive ducks. But Tripathi kept his nerves under control to finish things off in style. "It was difficult to hit straight away after getting into the middle as the ball was keeping low. But I believed in myself and knew we were just one hit away. And we did it," Tripathi said after the win.

Credit must go to the KKR bowlers as well who sparkled once again, restricting Delhi to 135/5 in their 20 overs. KKR rode on some extremely economical spells from all their five regular bowlers. Varun Chakaravarthy was the pick of them with 2/26.

Delhi started off decently well but lost the plot in the middle overs, struggling to score more than six runs an over. However, a late charge from Shimron Hetmyer (17 off 10) and Shreyas Iyer (30 off 27) took them to a defendable total.

During the chase, Kolkata never looked in trouble as long as Venkatesh Iyer and Shubman Gill stayed at the crease. Iyer scored his third fifty this season (55 off 41) and stitched a wonderful 96-run partnership with Shubman Gill (46 off 46). However once they departed, the momentum started swinging Delhi's way. From 123/2 in 16 overs, KKR were reduced to 130/7 in 19.4 overs, courtesy of some gigantic efforts from Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje and R Ashwin. However, Tripathi's heroics turned the tides at the penultimate hour.

Kolkata will now meet Chennai on October 15th in Dubai for one final time! Bring it on boys!