What would have been on Chennai Super Kings’ wish list before this final? 1) Win toss on a slow pitch. 2) Great start by the openers. 3) Remove Chris Gayle for a duck. PS: While we are it why not knock out AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli cheaply? They got all that. Chennai produced a near-perfect game and mauled Royal Challengers Bangalore to lift their second IPL trophy.

M Vijay has rarely converted his starts this IPL and Michael Hussey hasn’t sparkled in the previous few games. So what they do on the day of the big finale? They amass a sizzling 159-run partnership to launch Chennai to a massive total at the Chidambaram Stadium. R Ashwin then derailed the chase by packing off Gayle for a duck in the first over. Game over.

It was the ease with which the runs flowed and the calm manner in which they were accumulated by the Chennai openers that caught the eye. There were several big shots but nearly all of them were in conventional zones. There was just one bad shot in the first 14 overs. Just one. In the 10th over, Vijay had just played a nonchalant flick that sailed just clear of a lunging Luke Pomersbach on the deep-midwicket boundary. He then tried to slog the next ball across the line and edged it to the leg side. The reaction of the players reflected their awareness of the need to keep adrenalin in check: Vijay shadow practiced a straighter arc of the bat and Hussey rushed across to have a long chat.

For the duration of the partnership, which lasted 14.5 overs, they complemented each other with contrasting approaches. Hussey punctuated his bunts, chips and drives with the occasional big hit – the highlight was a monstrous heave off Syed Mohammad that crashed into the roof beyond wide long-on. Vijay went the other way. He punctuated his flamboyant on-the-up hits with quieter punches for singles and twos. They both ran between the wickets hard and fast and the scoring-rate never flagged. Vijay grew increasingly tired but it was Hussey who fell first, swatting a full toss from Mohammad to long-on. By then, they had laid a great platform.

It was Vijay who started the mayhem off the final delivery of the second over with a special shot. It was a short-of-length delivery with little room for maneuvering, or so it seemed, but Vijay wafted it on the up and through the line for a flamboyant six over long-on. Hussey pulled the next delivery, from Zaheer Khan, over the backward square-leg boundary to launch the assault. They repeated that double-dose of sixes again. Hussey swung the final delivery of the fifth over, bowled by Mohammad, over the midwicket boundary and Vijay lifted the next ball, from Chris Gayle, over long-on. Chennai reached 56 for 0 in six overs and kept going from strength to strength.

They started their bowling in the same way. Ashwin just needed three deliveries to remove the chief thorn in their path. The first two turned sharply away from Gayle before the third swerved in from round the stumps and skidded on to collect the edge from an attempted cut. de Villiers reeled off a few big shots but was trapped by Shadab Jakati and Suresh Raina had Kohli lbw to sew up the game for Chennai.

In contrast Bangalore slipped on the little things that matter on this stage. In the Powerplay, there were three instances of fielders succumbing to adrenalin rushes and indulging in needless throws; one, from Saurabh Tiwary, even went to the boundary. Pomersbach could have done a better job in seizing that chance from Vijay in the 10th over, and S Aravind messed up an opportunity to run out Hussey in the 12th over. Vijay, the non-striker, had called Hussey for a risky single and Aravind, the bowler who picked up the ball at short mid-on, flung it wide at the non-striker’s end. There was another instance in the 11th over when the bowler, Mohammad, flung himself full stretch to his right but couldn’t hang on to a difficult chance offered by Vijay. It was that kind of day. Things just didn’t go right for Bangalore and everything went according to script for Chennai.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

Royal Challengers set up a final clash with Chennai Super Kings after beating Mumbai Indians by 43 runs in the second qualifying final of IPL 4 at MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai on Friday.

Chasing a mammoth victory target of 186 runs, Mumbai managed 143/8 in their 20 overs.

Daniel Vettori scalped Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard in his successive overs.

Vettori first had Rohit caught by Luke Pomersbach at sweeper cover and one ball later trapped Rayudu plumb in front of the wicket for a first ball duck.

Abhimanyu Mithun took a superb one-handed catch at long-on to dismiss Pollard in Vettori’s next over.

Zaheer Khan then clean bowled James Franklin to reduce Mumbai to 99/7 and ending all their hopes of a fightback.

Left-arm spinner Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad had captain Sachin Tendulkar stumped by AB de Villiers to reduce Mumbai to 68/3 in 8 overs.

Tendulkar charged down the pitch but was beaten by the delivery that turned sharply and the Master was in no position to negotiate the sharp turn and AB de Villiers removed the bails in a flash.

Tendulkar hit 7 fours in his 24-ball 40 before falling to Syed.

Sreenath Aravind dismissed Aiden Blizzard and Harbhajan Singh in his successive overs as Mumbai got off to a poor start.

Aravind first had Blizzard caught by Mayank Agarwal at long-on and in his next over had Harbhajan caught by Luke Pomersbach at deep mid-wicket.

Blizzard hit 2 fours in his 11-ball 10 while pinch-hitter Harbhajan hit a six and a four in his 7-ball 13.

Earlier, Chris Gayle’s 47-ball 89 and Mayank Agarwal’s 31-ball 41 powered Bangalore to 185/4.

AB de Villiers hit a six in his unbeaten 15-ball 21.

Gayle smashed 89 runs off 47 balls before Munaf Patel had him caught by James Franklin at long-on.

Gayle’s blitzkrieg knock was studded with 5 sixes and 9 fours ad he was lloking good for more before Munaf struck in the 15th over.

Bangalore lost their third wicket in the next over when Virat Kohli edged a Abu Nechim delivery onto his stumps.

Munaf struck again in his next over when Lasith Malinga took a superb diving catch at short third-man to dismiss Luke Pomersbach.

Gayle reached his half-century off 27 balls and was ably aided by his opening partner Mayank Agarwal as the two brought up Bangalore’s 100 in the ninth over after brining up the 50 in the fourth over.

All plans to contain the Bangalore openers failed as Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar deployed as many as six bowlers in the first nine overs.

Bangalore lost their first wicket when Kieron Pollard had Agarwal caught by Rohit Sharma at long-on.

Agarwal hit 2 sixes and 2 fours in his 31-ball 41 and put up a 113-run opening stand with Gayle.

The carnage started after Tendulkar won the toss and chose to bowl.

Mumbai brought in Abu Nechim and Rajagopal Satish in favour of T Suman and Dhawal Kulkarni.

Bangalore replaced Mohammad Kaif with Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar (Capt.), Aiden Blizzard, Ambati Rayudu, Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard, James Franklin, Rajagopal Satish, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Lasith Malinga, Abu Nechim.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Daniel Vettori (Capt.), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Saurabh Tiwary, Luke Pomersbach, Sreenath Aravind, Abhimanyu Mithun, Zaheer Khan, Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad.

Source: Times of India

Kolkata Knight Riders began nervously, Mumbai Indians finished similarly, but it was Mumbai who booked a place in the Champions League T20 and in the semi-final equivalent of IPL 2009. What will irk Kolkata is that they were the better side for 39 overs in the previous match between these sides, but one bad over then set up this rematch in the quarter-final equivalent. Mumbai did enough to make use on the second chance.

Kolkata’s top order came out trying too hard for a big start, losing four wickets for 20, and Ryan ten Doeschate’s 70 was not recovery enough on a good Wankhede track with short boundaries. A blazing start from Aiden Blizzard and Sachin Tendulkar seemed to have put to rest Mumbai’s habit of muddled chases, but they choked again. For the second night in a row, though, James Franklin took Mumbai home with a much less miraculous but much more assured 29, with much more on the line.

Munaf Patel bowled smartly to capitalise on Kolkata’s palpable nervous energy, taking three wickets, including those of Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan. It was a subtle change-up immediately after being driven for four that sent Kallis back. The wicket-taking delivery was pitched in the similar area, but was bowled with a scrambled seam and hence a touch slower. The slice settled with a diving Tendulkar.

Gautam Gambhir, Sreevats Goswami and Manoj Tiwary concentrated just on the boundaries, in the process failing to place the good balls for singles. The dot balls mounted, and all three fell to shots they would normally not play. ten Deoschate played sensibly, though, looking for singles and punishing the bad ones. That calm rubbed off to Yusuf, their 60-run stand took the run-rate past six an over, and a big finish could not have been ruled out.

Munaf, though, returned to interrupt the comeback with more clever bowling. Convinced that the short ball would trouble Yusuf, he let his Baroda team-mate have some. The first one took a top edge for four, the second went for a single along the ground, and the third one was mistimed over midwicket. Munaf persisted, and with his fourth bouncer of the over, he sent his man back.

Ambati Rayudu, a part-time keeper, proceeded to miss ten Doeschate and Shakib Al Hasan in the next two overs. ten Doeschate went on to score the highest for a No. 6 this IPL, Kolkata got 60 in the last six, but they were still at start still meant Kolkata were a blazing start away from elimination. Blizzrad and Tendulkar provided just that. Blizzard relished the pace of Brett Lee, Tendulkar took care of the spin of Iqbal Abdulla and Yusuf Pathan. A lot of class and a lot of power merged effectively to bring up the fifty in the fifth over. There was remote semblance of redemption for Lee when he came back to remove Blizzard, but not before the batsman had hit him for four and six in that over.

Then Mumbai stumbled. Rohit Sharma ran himself out, Tendulkar fell to a sharp bouncer, and Rayudu seemed to have been sawn off. From 81 for 0 in the eighth over, Mumbai had been reduced to 103 for 4 in the 13th. A mini partnership happened, but Shakib trapped Pollard to make it 123 for 5. T Suman couldn’t handle the nerves and holed out to long-off.

The asking rate now crossed a run a ball for the last two overs, but a top edge off Lee’s first ball brought it back to 11 off 11. L Balaji, who failed to defend 21 in the last match, didn’t get a shot at redemption. The last over went to Shakib – his figures 3-0-17-2 until then – who needed to defend seven. Harbhajan lofted the second ball over midwicket, and let out a roar.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Chennai Super Kings beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets to reach IPL 4 final as Suresh Raina hit an unbeaten 50-ball 73 at Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Chennai chased down the 176-run target in 19.4 overs as Raina and Albie Morkel put up a 46-run stand off 18 balls.

Raina’s unbeaten knock was studded with 6 sixes and 4 fours and Morkel hit 3 sixes and a four in his 10-ball 28.

Zaheer Khan had Chennai captain MS Dhoni caught by Abhimanyu Mithun at long-on soon after Suresh Raina hit a 41-ball fifty.

Dhoni hit a six and 3 fours in his 19-ball 29 before falling to Zaheer.

Raina and Dhoni added 61 runs for the fourth wicket after Abhimanyu Mithun had Subramaniam Badrinath caught by Sreenath Aravind at sweeper cover.

Badrinath hit 5 fours in his 32-ball 34 and added 63 runs for the third wicket with Raina before falling to Mithun.

Chennai’s run chase got off to a bad start as Zaheer Khan and Sreenath Aravind dismissed their openers in the first two overs.

Zaheer struck first when he trapped Michael Hussey plumb in front of the wicket on the fourth ball of the Chennai innings for a duck.

Aravind then dismissed Murali Vijay leg before wicket in the second over to place Chennai to 7/2.

Earlier, Virat Kohli hit an unbeaten 44-ball 70 to power Bangalore to 175/4 against Chennai.

Kohli’s unbeaten knock was studded with 3 sixes and 5 fours and he put a 48-run stand with Luke Pomersbach to lead Bangalore’s recovery.

Pomersbach hit 2 sixes and 2 fours in his 18-ball 29 before he was clean bowled by a slower delivery from Doug Bollinger.

Chennai had seized the advantage when Shadab Jakati had AB de Villiers caught by Murali Vijay at long-on.

de Villiers hit a six in his 10-ball 11 before losing his wicket.

Dwayne Bravo had Mayank Agarwal caught by Doug Bollinger at long-on to place Bangalore at 65/2 in 9 overs.

Mayank hit 5 fours in his 33-ball 34 before falling to Bravo.

Ravichandran Ashwin gave Chennai an early breakthrough when he trapped the dangerous Chris Gayle plumb in front of the wicket.

Ashwin struck immediately after getting hit for a six.

Gayle hit a six in his 9-ball 8 before falling to Ashwin.

The breakthrough came after Chennai captain MS Dhoni won the toss and chose to bowl.

Both Chennai and Bangalore have the same playing eleven.

Teams:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Daniel Vettori (Capt.), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Mohammad Kaif, Saurabh Tiwary, Luke Pomersbach, Sreenath Aravind, Abhimanyu Mithun, Zaheer Khan.

Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt.), Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Albie Morkel, Subramaniam Badrinath, Dwayne Bravo, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Doug Bollinger, Shadab Jakati.

Source: Times of India

Kolkata Knight Riders had their Champions League debut all but booked when they began the last over with 21 to defend. Three edged boundaries off L Balaji and two missed yorkers later, James Franklin and Ambati Rayudu had seen Mumbai Indians to a highly unlikely win, breaking their three-match losing streak. The win set up a repeat clash between the two teams in the eliminator, an equivalent of a quarter-final.

In all the chaos of the last over, which stunned the full house at Eden Gardens, Chennai Super Kings emerged the biggest gainers. Had Kolkata won the game, which they should have despite all those edges, Chennai would have finished third, and would have had to win two games in order to make the final. Now they need win only one of the two.

Mumbai gained too: they needed to finish the chase off in 5.1 overs to make it to the top two, but by beating Kolkata they could have ensured a psychological advantage in their eliminator. For the best part of their 19 overs of batting, Mumbai scarcely looked like a team that could do so. Iqbal Abdulla removed T Suman in the second over, the pinch-hitter Harbhajan Singh managed 30 off 29, and Rajat Bhatia’s leg-rollers broke the batting order’s back with thee wickets in three overs.

At 96 for 4 in the 13th over, it seemed too much was left for Kieron Pollard and Franklin. Pollard lived up to that expectation, but Franklin kept the fight up mostly with well-placed couples. A six and a four in between meant Mumbai were not completely out of it even when Balaji ripped Pollard’s leg stump out with 40 required off 15.

If this was robbery in broad floodlights, Kolkata weren’t the most vigilant victims either. As much as the edged boundaries in the last over, Kolkata will also look back at little moments towards the end that proved to be decisive. Balaji bowled a wide with one ball left in the 18th over, and Ambati Rayudu lofted the compensation delivery over extra cover for a six. It wouldn’t be Rayudu’s last six of the night.

The last ball of the 19th over hit Rayudu in the pad and rolled towards the keeper. The batsmen had all but stolen a leg-bye when wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami went for a direct hit, and conceded an overthrow. That kept Franklin – 28 off 18 now – on strike for the last over. L Balaji went for a wide yorker first ball, and a thick edge off the low full toss went between the keeper and the short third man. A slower bouncer followed, and the tope edge cleared the keeper again. Thirteen off four now looked so much more gettable.

Balaji went back to the wide-yorker plan, and Franklin smacked the next low full toss past extra cover for four. Under pressure and in the face of some ill luck, Balaji was just not landing them right. The next ball was a low, wide full toss again, and another thick edge beat third man to make it five of two. The next low full toss found extra cover, and brought Kolkata some relief. However, just then Balaji chose to bowl the worst delivery of the over – a high full toss on the pads – and Rayudu helped himself to his second, and decisive, six.

The stunned Eden gardens crowd could scarcely believe what they were seeing after they had cheered their team all night to what looked like a comfortable win. Most of it was thanks to Jacques Kallis who batted solidly at first and rapaciously towards the end. Along the way he was helped by breezy 30s from Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan, but it was Kallis who provided the innings the final impetus with 19 off the last five balls he faced. It was fitting then that the man who minimised the damage with the wickets of Kallis and Yusuf was none other than Franklin.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

Chris Gayle smashed an unbeaten 75 as Royal Challengers Bangalore topped the points table with an eight-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

The West Indies opener hit six sixes in his 50-ball knock as Bangalore surpassed Chennai’s total of 128-8 with two overs to spare in their last league match of the Twenty20 tournament.

Gayle, who added 80 for the second wicket with Virat Kohli (31), finished the match when he hit spinner Suresh Raina for 11 runs off the last three balls of the 18th over.

Bangalore (19 points), Chennai (18), Kolkata (16) and Mumbai (16) have already qualified for the play-offs. They are followed by Punjab (14), Rajasthan (13), Deccan (12), Kochi (12), Pune (nine) and Delhi (nine).

Chennai skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni hit six sixes in his explosive 40-ball 70 not out but received little support from the other end, the highest stand of the innings being 42 for the fifth wicket.

Chennai made a poor start after being put in to bat as they lost four wickets for 22 runs in the opening six overs, with left-arm paceman Zaheer Khan dismissing Australian Michael Hussey and Raina in successive overs.

Hussey could make just four runs before inside-edging a Zaheer devliery on to the stumps while Raina was caught by Kohli at point.

New Zealand left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori put more pressure on Chennai when he removed Subramaniam Badrinath and West Indies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo to eventually finish with 2-15 off four overs.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

And so it’s Delhi Daredevils who finish at the bottom of the pile. A heavy downpour forced the game to be abandoned after Delhi struggled through to reach 56 for 3 from 10.1 overs against Pune Warriors.

Delhi just lurched along aimlessly before the rain saved them from further embarrassment. David Warner offered brief respite to the Delhi fans with a pulled six off Alfonso Thomas and a six over long-on against IPL debutant James Faulkner. That was it, for it was Pune who controlled the game. Pune, in their first IPL season, finished ninth in the table, ahead of Delhi on net run-rate.

Faulkner had a good night bowling his left arm seamers; he delivered a lovely slower yorker – released out from back of the hand – to knock out Warner and bowled a couple of jaffas that kicked up from a length at Matthew Wade. Another IPL debutant Shrikant Mundhe struck in his first over to end the misery of Naman Ojha, who had missed more than he connected; and Mitchell Marsh produced a yorker to terminate Wade’s limp innings. Then the clouds opened up. Game over.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

Shikhar Dhawan cracked an unbeaten 95 and Amit Mishra took a hat-trick as Deccan Chargers knocked Kings XI Punjab out of the Indian Premier League with an 82-run victory on Saturday.

Punjab’s loss also simplified the points table math in the IPL, putting Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians in the play-offs.

Punjab had staged a late turnaround in their title bid, winning their last four matches. They needed to win today to retain an outside chance of making the play-offs at the expense of either Mumbai or Kolkata.

Chennai (18 points), Bangalore (17), Kolkata (16) and Mumbai (16) are the four teams in the play-offs. They are followed by Punjab (14), Rajasthan (13), Deccan (12), Kochi (12), Pune (eight) and Delhi (eight).

Left-handed opener Dhawan, who hit one six and 14 fours in his 57-ball knock, put on 131 for the opening wicket with Ravi Teja (60) as Deccan made 198-2 before bowling Punjab out for 116.
Skipper Adam Gilchrist top-scored with a 37-ball 51 for Punjab, who put in a below-par batting and fielding performance. The captain, who hit two sixes and six fours, added 61 for the third wicket with Dinesh Karthik (11).

Deccan virtually wrapped up the match when Australian paceman Daniel Christian dismissed Gilchrist and Karthik in the space of three balls to reduce Punjab to 84-4 in 11 overs.

Leg-spinner Mishra’s hat-trick came in his third over when he removed Ryan McLaren, Mandeep Singh and Ryan Harris to eventually finish with 4-9.

Teja, dropped thrice during his 41-ball knock, hit two sixes and five fours in his team’s final match, watched by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama who also met players before the start of the game.

He reached his half-century in style, hitting a six off leg-spinner Piyush Chawla who conceded 48 in his four overs. Deccan plundered 113 runs in the last 10 overs to set a stiff target.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

The prospect of a final face-off between Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne had dominated the build-up to this clash, but on the field it was overshadowed by an imposing performance from Shane Watson. Not only did he deliver a fitting farewell for his captain from competitive cricket, but left Mumbai Indians under serious pressure of keeping their qualification chances alive following a third straight defeat. For someone who had struggled to capitalise on starts this tournament, Watson compensated with a splendid all-round effort, serving a painful reminder to Mumbai of what they should have achieved on a good pitch with each of his crushing blows into the heart of a packed Wankhede crowd.

The Tendulkar-Warne contest should have been a non-event as left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan twice had Tendulkar trapped in front, including one off the first ball, only for the umpire Paul Reiffel to think otherwise. Backed up by his disciplined bowling at one end, Watson dismissed T Suman and Ambati Rayudu in successive overs from the other, depriving the hosts of the attacking start they would have hoped for after choosing to bat. And just as Kieron Pollard had warmed up at the death after muscling a couple of boundaries, Watson cleaned him up to restrict Mumbai to a below-par total, one that was given some respectability by a classy half-century from Rohit Sharma.

It didn’t take long for Watson to set about punishing Mumbai, as he smote Harbhajan Singh for two massive sixes over midwicket in the second over of the chase. He followed that up by drilling Lasith Malinga past mid-off in an over that perhaps produced his only moment of discomfort. Malinga responded venomously, knocking back Watson’s chin with a bouncer – it escaped the grill, there would have been some pain but he didn’t show it. His own response? A memorable counterattack, pulling Malinga each time he dropped short, his next seven balls producing three fours and a flat six and stunned crowd not used to seeing their star-studded home team being overwhelmed in that manner.

A sense of resignation was felt in the crowd, if not among the players, when Watson smacked Harbhajan for three consecutive fours in his comeback over, while Rahul Dravid, happy to play the supporting role, showed his own class with some delightful boundaries off Pollard and Munaf Patel. The pair remained unbeaten, Rajasthan romped home, marking a satisfactory end after their turmoil-filled build-up to the tournament.

Rohit had won praise from Warne as one of the most exciting talents in Indian cricket, and he undoubtedly would have impressed his opposing captain with his performance today. He quickly took the lead in the stand with Tendulkar, his stand-out shot being imposing drive against Warne through extra cover, matched by a delightful punch in the same region off Johan Botha who couldn’t restrain Rohit despite chasing him as he made room.

Rohit used his feet well to spin, stepped up in the late overs after Tendulkar’s duel with Warne was cut short by an upper cut off Amit Singh though Warne wasn’t finishing his spell without a cheer. His final victory with the ball was the stumping of Rohit, stunned by the turn and losing his bat to square leg after a wild swing gone bad. At the end of the game, Warne was still smiling after Mumbai stayed baffled.

Siddhartha Talya is a sub editor at ESPNcricinfo

A challenging wicket provides a gripping contest. Not necessarily between the teams but at least between the bat and ball. This was on display when Pune Warriors tried to spoil Kolkata Knight Riders’ party at the DY Patil stadium on Thursday night.

The ‘contest’ was largely limited to first innings only. And it meant Pune’s aspiration to beat the Big Brother remained just a wish.

Kolkata Knight Riders hammered them by seven wickets with more than three overs to spare. The win gives them a remote chance to finish in the top-two and qualify for the ‘soft’ semifinal (winner goes to final, loser plays the quarters) if Mumbai lose to Rajasthan.

Pune will visit Delhi for the Saturday game in a match to avoid wooden-spoon while Adam Gilchrist’s Kings XI Punjab are almost out of play-off contention due to their inferior net run rate.

Yusuf Pathan made use getting promotion despite being clueless on many occasions. Batting at No. 4, he made 29 off 25. Surprisingly, the fours came behind point before a trademark six off Bhuvnesh Kumar over long-on.

Captain Gambhir (54, 46b, 7x4s) was his usual self: crafty yet quiet; effective but not belligerent. The target of 119 was a child’s play for his team. Pune’s sloppy fielding came as unwanted bonus and without enough runs on the board, leggie Rahul Shrama wasn’t a big weapon.

Kolkata won the toss, opted to bowl and restricted Pune Warriors to 118 for seven. Yuvraj Singh batted at No. 6 and top scored with 24 off 26 with two fours.

The wicket unexpectedly behaved a bit differently and assisted the spinners more. And that led to some odd happenings. The spin troika of Yusuf, Shakib Al Hasan and Iqbal Abdulla bowled 11 overs between them and conceded 51 runs for five wickets.

KKR’s specialist paceman L. Balaji was ‘introduced’ to the attack in the 20th and last over and took two wickets. Gambhir, who rotated his bowlers superbly, gave two overs on a trot to his pacemen just once despite having the likes of Balaji, Brett Lee and Jacques Kallis in his ranks.

When Robin Uthappa came in to bat, he faced a slip and silly point. Even his ‘dot’ ball (immediately after Balaji failed to judge his catch at deep mid-wicket) was applauded by non-striker and former KKR captain Sourav Ganguly.

Ganguly took 19 balls before hitting his first boundary. He ran 12 singles of his own and ran his partners’ 12 runs too.
During the drinks break, KKR bowling coach Wasim Akram was seen inside the ropes having a chat with his wards.

Though off-spinner Yusuf gave KKR the first wicket (Jesse Ryder playing amateur dolly to long-off), it was the ‘visitors’ left-arm spinners Abdulla and Shakib who were a treat to watch.

Abdulla’s first ball turned sharply as Manish Pandey tried to search for it. A ball in the same over held its line and had him lbw. Shakib bowled tight line and had Calum Ferguson stumped with a ball that dipped in and turned away sharply. Despite all this, the batsmen had their moments.

Source: Times of India