Lucknow Super Giants sealed their second successive play-offs berth in the Indian Premier League at Eden Gardens on Saturday. Pooran held the LSG innings together with a counter-attacking 30-ball 58 (4×4, 5×6) helmed their victory.
Chasing 177 for a win, Rinku threatened to pull off yet another last over win for KKR with a ruthless 67 not out from 33 balls (6×4, 4×6) as he waged a lone battle. But it was not enough in the end as KKR ended at 175 for 7 to lose the match by one run.
With this KKR with 12 points from 14 matches were out of the cash rich league. While LSG finished third in the table with 17 points from 14 matches.
Earlier in the day, Devon Conway, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Deepak Chahar put their best foot forward helping CSK seal its berth in the IPL playoffs.
Conway (87 off 52) and Gaikwad (79 off 50) smashed brilliant half-centuries to help Chennai Super Kings post a challenging 223/3 after captain MS Dhoni opted to bat. Chahar (3/22) was the standout bowler for the visitors while Maheesh Theekshana (2/23) picked up two wickets in the last over. Conway and Gaikwad came all guns blazing, hitting boundaries and sixes at will at the tacky Kotla pitch. The two put on 141 runs for the opening stand and smashed a total of 14 fours and 10 sixes.
With this win CSK moved up to 17 points and become the second team to move to the qualifiers.