Three years ago today, the Kolkata Knight Riders secured their place in the playoffs of the Indian Premier League after registering a comprehensive five-wicket win against the table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad, courtesy Prasidh Krishna's brilliant 4-30.
The journey of the Knight Riders in this edition of the tournament has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride. The team managed to win seven games in their 13 league matches played until that point. However, with a place in the playoffs at stake, the Knight Riders set foot in the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad to lock horns against a confident Sunrisers unit.
Electing to bat first, the home team made a promising start to their innings, with Shikhar Dhawan and Sreevats Goswami adding 60 runs in the first six overs of the field restrictions.
The duo stitched an opening partnership of 79 runs before Goswami was caught at long-on by Andre Russell off Kuldeep Yadav for 35. Despite a strong platform, the middle order of the Orange Army failed to get going courtesy of a brilliant spell of fast bowling by Prasidh.
Consistently bowling in the right areas and varying his pace, Prasidh wreaked havoc at the back end of the innings. In the first ball of the 16th over, the 25-year-old trapped Dhawan in front of his stumps to make inroads in the middle order.
Prasidh returned with the ball in the final over of the innings and produced one of the most dramatic overs in the Indian Premier League. The six deliveries accounted for three crucial wickets and a runout off the final ball to make it four wickets in the over.
He returned with figures of 4/30 as the bowling unit of the Knight Riders stifled the opposition in the death overs. The Sunrisers managed 31 runs in the final five overs and crawled their way to 172 runs after an explosive start.
Riding on contributions from Chris Lynn (55) and Robin Uthappa (45) at the top of the order, the boys in Purple and Gold registered a comfortable five wicket win to secure the playoff berth for the sixth time in 11 seasons.
