Hyderabad, Sept 21: Kolkata Knight Riders lost their final qualifying round match against Somerset by 11 runs but still managed to qualify for the Champions League Twenty20 main tournament here at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
Opener Peter Trego struck a fluent half-century to help Somerset post a challenging 166 for six against Kolkata Knight Riders in their final qualifying match of Champions League Twenty20 here today.
Trego (70 off 61) was at his destructive best as he hit nine fours to lay a solid foundation for the middle-order batsmen to capitalise on.
Roelof van der Merwe (40 off 25) also played a good hand while Nick Compton produced a nice 10-ball 20 cameo towards the end to provide the late surge for the visitors, who piled up 46 runs in the last five overs.
Chasing a victory target of 167, KKR could score 155 for eight but made it to the 10-team main tournament as the third highest ranked side in the six-team qualifying round on better net run rate.
They collected two points from one win against Auckland Aces, the same as Ruhunu Eleven but qualified for the main tournament on better net run rate.
KKR have a net run rate of minus 0.225 while Ruhunu ended at minus 0.275. The Kolkata side qualified for the main round after reaching 153 in their run chase.
The Jacques Kallis led side joined three other Indian teams reigning champions Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in the main round, to be held from September 23 to October 9.
Somerset and Trinidad and Tobago are the two other teams to have qualified to the main round from the qualifiers. Both secured two wins each.
Ryan ten Doeschate waged a lone battle for KKR, hitting one four and three sixes on his way to 46 from 31 deliveries, but eventually ran short of partners.
