The pre-match hype was all about Sourav Ganguly taking on his former team at his nursery – Eden Gardens. Ganguly played a part in giving his struggling Pune Warriors a chance to upstage the hosts, but in a bitter twist, his own dismissal was the turning point, allowing Knight Riders to clinch a seven-run win. In a match that ebbed a flowed, Angelo Mathews halted Knight Riders’ charge with a flurry of sixes, but with support diminishing at the other end, he failed to muscle Warriors to victory.
Gautam Gambhir set Kolkata up for something bigger than what they managed © AFP
It was an innings of two halves by Kolkata Knight Riders. An opening stand of 113 between Gautam Gambhir and Brendon McCullum gave them the foundation to entertain thoughts of 200 and beyond, but the other batsmen batted as if on a different wicket and managed only 37 runs in the last 7.3 overs. Given Pune Warriors’ previous game, where they failed to chase 120, the hosts could still fancy their chances.
The Warriors bowlers struggled initially on a slow pitch, often dropping too short or drifting on the pads, giving Knight Riders plenty of boundary opportunities. Gambhir began his innings by pulling a long hop off the left-arm spinner Murali Kartik in the first over, before clubbing Ashok Dinda for six.
The openers used their feet against the seamers, as illustrated by two sixes in the opening stand. McCullum welcomed Wayne Parnell by walking across his stumps and launching him over long-on, before Gambhir walked down the track and slogged a slower delivery from Dinda over deep midwicket. The pair ransacked 46 runs off three overs to end the Powerplay on an imposing 68 for no loss. It was also the third fifty-plus stand between the pair in the IPL
Sensing that the spinners would play a crucial role in containing the run-rate on this sluggish pitch, Ganguly brought on Clarke. The Australian was unlucky not to have McCullum on 28, when Dinda dropped a sitter at short fine-leg off a top edge. It was doubly embarrassing for Dinda as it happened in front of his ‘home’ crowd.
Gambhir milked the singles by dabbing the seamers to third man. There were no pressure tactics applied by Warriors till the tenth over, when the wicketkeeper Robin Uthappa stood up to the stumps to prevent the batsmen from using their feet. Gambhir continued coming down the track but he failed to launch Kartik over long-off, where he was caught by Mithun Manhas.
It was the start of the slide for Knight Riders. A slower ball from Angelo Mathews trapped McCullum lbw on the paddle sweep, though replays hinted at an inside edge. A brilliant effort on the boundary by Steven Smith roused Warriors’ spirits after Dinda’s drop. Yusuf Pathan’s heave to wide long-on ought to have cleared the rope, but Smith leapt on the edge of the rope, caught it and parried it into play.
A big offcutter from Mathews clipped Jacques Kallis’ stumps as Warriors infiltrated further. After hammering 106 off 11 overs, Knight Riders managed only 44 off the last nine – their worst performance in all IPL seasons. Following McCullum’s fall in the 14th over, they scored only one more boundary – a six by Debabrata Das which only just popped over the rope off Smith’s palms at long-on.
Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 150 for 5 (Gambhir 56, McCullum 42, Mathews 2-17) beat Pune Warriors 143 for 8 (Mathews 35, Ganguly 36, de lange 3-34) by seven runs
Chennai go fourth with tough win
Their batsmen did not set Chepauk alight, nor did their bowlers destroy the opposition, but Chennai Super Kings fought hard on a demanding pitch to earn a victory that helped them claw back into the league’s top half. Their top-order made nugget-sized but swift contributions that ensured Super Kings reached a competitive target despite an end-over slowdown, after which their bowlers prevented Cameron White’s solitary straining at the reins from saving the night for Deccan Chargers. It was a gritty, unspectacular win, but one that ensured they did not drop points against the IPL’s bottom-placed team.
The turnaround for Super Kings, however, came via a stroke of luck. White and Shikhar Dhawan had kept Chargers on course by reaching 77 for 1 in the 11th over, when White drove the ball hard at Dwayne Bravo, the bowler. The ball thudded into Bravo’s hand and deflected a long way on to the stumps, catching Dhawan backing-up much too far. There was no luck involved in Kumar Sangakkara’s dismissal, though, when Suresh Raina lunged to his right to grab a firm drive with the fingertips of his outstretched hand. Daniel Christian took time to settle in and Chargers scored only 26 between overs 11 and 15 for the loss of two wickets. They needed 59 off the final five and run scoring was significantly harder as the ball got older.
Two more economical overs drove the equation up to 47 off 18 balls, when White swung Ravindra Jadeja far over long-on and long-off, and then through backward square leg, to give Chargers hope. With 27 needed off 10 deliveries, though, Jadeja’s accurate throw to Dhoni from the deep ran out White for 77, snuffing out Chargers’ last hope. Perhaps the most relieved man on the field was Albie Morkel, who had dropped White first ball.
Chargers had themselves to blame for their seventh defeat in ten matches. Their fielding has been shocking through the tournament and today’s performance was typical. Amit Mishra dropped Faf du Plessis on 10; he went on to top-score for Super Kings with 42. In the final over, Ankit Sharma and Parthiv Patel failed to call for a catch off Bravo and conceded two runs off that delivery. The next ball went for six and the last two for two each. In a format of small margins, Chargers were generous once again. They could have been chasing 140 instead of 160.
At one stage, however, Super Kings’ top order was building a platform for 180. M Vijay, who opened because Michael Hussey was replaced by Ben Hilfenhaus, flung his bat around before he was caught early, but there were brisk partnerships between the rest. Raina and du Plessis added 64 in 7.2 overs, the highlight being Raina, who took six balls to score, pulling and hooking Veer Pratap Singh for consecutive sixes.
In the end, the acceleration did not come. After scoring at a healthy clip for the majority of their innings, and despite sending the strongest in their arsenal upfront, Super Kings did not find that end-over propulsion. In fact, they slowed down: having made 118 for 3 in 14 overs, Super Kings scored only 42 off the final six, but it was ten too many for Chargers.
Scores: Chennai Super Kings 160 for 6 (du Plessis 42) beat Deccan Chargers 150 for 5 (White 77) by 10 runs