IPL 2020: 'A dream come true for me', says Tripathi on his match-winning knock Vs Chennai

Rahul Tripathi said that it was a dream come true moment for him after playing a match-winning knock against Chennai during the Dream11 IPL 2020 league match at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on Wednesday. Tripathi was promoted to open the innings for Kolkata along with Shubman Gill instead of pinch-hitter Sunil Narine. He did not disappoint as he scored a 51-ball 81 that helped the two-time winners post a respectable total of 167. 

In reply, Chennai were crusing towards and easy win with opener Shane Watson playing the anchor's role to near perfection. However, once he was dismissed for a 40-ball 50, the three-time winners failed to rediscover their rhythm and were eventually restricted to 157/5 in their 20 overs. Dinesh Karthik & Co. registered a 10-run win to make it to the third spot in the points table. 

'Something like a dream come true for me': Rahul Tripathi

"Something like a dream come true for me. Was prepared for both the roles. Thought the ball was coming nicely, so I thought we should keep up the scoreboard which is why those shots came out, nothing special. It's a journey. Have loved this journey. Coming to KKR is special.... It's a dream come true", said Tripathi during the post-match interview after he was adjudged the Man of the Match for his enterprising knock. 

Kolkata skipper Dinesh Karthik heaped praise on the team's batting order.

"There are some key players for every team. Narine is one for us. Least we can do is back him. 2-3 poor games, doesn't matter. Good to see Tripathi do the job at the top. Good thing about Russ is he's very versatile. He can bat slightly up, slightly down. Our batting is very fluid. I started at three, today I batted at seven. The way those guys batted at the start, they batted very well. Back end I have a lot of trust in Sunil and Varun, paid off", he said. 

His opposite number MS Dhoni revealed what went wrong for the multiple-time champions when they were on course to register their second straight win.

"In the middle overs there was a phase where they bowled 2-3 good overs. If we batted better and didn't lose 2-3 wickets in a row. We should've been careful in the first 5-6 overs. Curran was really good with the ball, and I think we did well in general with the ball, but the batsmen let the bowlers down today. Rotation of strike was important, but I think there were hardly any boundaries in the final few overs, so we need to be innovative at the end when they are continuously hitting a back of a length. That's where we need to adapt better with the bat and I don't think we did that", said Dhoni.

(Image Courtesy: @IPL)