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

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

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

Brett Lee sledged, Gautam Gambhir sighed in agony, and the crowd lapped it up in delight as Chris Gayle’s brutal cameo obliterated the below-par target set by Kolkata Knight Riders in a rain-hit game in Bangalore. Though the chase went into the final over, and Royal Challengers Bangalore lost a few quick wickets in the end, Gayle’s 12-ball 38 had effectively killed the contest in just 2.4 overs of the chase. With the win, Bangalore made it seven victories on the trot and qualified for the playoffs.

Though Gayle dealt them the final blow, it was Kolkata’s batting, which bordered on over-aggression, and the rain, that reduced the game to a 13-over contest, that really cost them the game. Kolkata were 69 for 3 in 11 overs when rain left them with only two more overs to bat, and they reached 89 for 4. Bangalore were set a Duckworth/Lewis adjusted target of 102 and Gayle’s blitz ensured they could soak up the loss of quick wickets and reach the target.

The first over of the chase perfectly caught Gayle’s fury and Kolkata’s disappointment: Edge. Blast. Sledge. Edge. Crash. Gayle edged the first delivery to the third man boundary, crashed the second over cover, dug out a screaming yorker next – Lee sledged at this point, collected a four with a top-edged pull off the fifth ball and walloped the fifth to the cover-point boundary.

Kolkata’s troubles didn’t end with that 16-run over, for Jaidev Unadkat was looted for 23 in the next over. Luke Pomersbach, who replaced Tillakaratne Dilshan, started with a square-cut boundary before Gayle took over. He top-edged a six over third man before launching the next delivery on to the second tier of the stand beyond long-on. Although Gayle fell, top-edging a Lee delivery to Kallis, he had put Bangalore on course. They lost a few wickets in the end but there was never any danger of them losing their way.

It was with their batting that Kolkata lost the game. Sometimes, you can get over-aggressive. Sometimes, you need to shift to a Plan B but Kolkata seemed too eager to dominate. In their attempt to attack, they perhaps crossed the line. Even Jacques Kallis was nearly slogging and heaving at deliveries. Gautam Gambhir went too hard at deliveries and Eoin Morgan tried to cut nearly every delivery he faced. The result? They were reduced to 30 for 3 in the sixth over. They recovered to reach 69 for 3 in 11 overs but then rain soaked the playing arena. A long wait ensued and the game was restricted to 13 overs upon resumption.

Bangalore did everything right; they attacked relentlessly and suffocated the batsmen. They hurled down the bouncers, slipped in the occasional yorker, they got the ball to swing and seam a bit and always attacked. Eoin Morgan couldn’t get Zaheer Khan away and fell, charging out and flicking straight to midwicket. Jacques Kallis was intent on playing the big shots and he fell, edging an attempted heave off Charl Langeveldt. Bangalore’s change-up bowlers, Abimanyu Mithun and S Aravind, too kept it really tight and Bangalore’s sharp fielding did its bit in keeping Kolkata in check. When Gambhir tried to break free with a cut, AB de Villiers lunged to his left at backward point to take a sharp chance. It was left to Yusuf Pathan to give Kolkata a decent total but it didn’t prove enough.

Source: NDTV Cricket

Disciplined bowling and rain helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat defending champions Chennai Super Kings by 10 runs via Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method in their Indian Premier League match here Saturday.

In a rain delayed match, Knight Rider stifled Super Kings to 114/4 in their 20 overs on a slow and moist track and then raced away to 61/2 in 10 overs when skies opened up.

After revising the target as per D/L method, the Knight Riders were found 10 runs ahead.

Knight Riders lost skipper Gautam Gambhir (16) and Eoin Morgan (5) for 33 runs. Jacques Kallis was batting on 21 and Manoj Tiwary 15 when rain interrupted for the second time.

The win has taken the Knight Riders to second place with 14 points while Super Kings are at third place with 12 points.

Electing to bat, Subramanium Badrinath was the lone bright spot in the Super Kings innings, scoring a brisk 41-ball 54 runs with three fours and two sixes.

Tight bowling by Knight Riders bowler stopped super Kings from scoring a single boundary till the ninth over. Badrinath opened the account by swatting a six off Yusuf Pathan in the tenth over.

The defending champions were off to a false start losing opener Murali Vijay (5) to an easy caught and bowl off spinner Iqbal Abdulla in the fourth over.

Pathan then dismissed Suresh Raina (4), caught by Kallis at midwicket, in the sixth over to reduce Super Kings to 15/2.

Michael Hussey (15) and Badrinath then put on a 34-run stand for the third wicket to steady the innings but Lakshmipathy Balaji separated the two. Hussey was caught at midwicket by Morgan at midwicket in a bid to accelerate the scoring.

Badrinath, however, stood like a rock. He brought up his 50 off 37 balls and forged a 65-run fourth wicket partnership with Albie Morkel who made a run-a-ball 30 not out with three boundaries.

Badrinath was finally dismissed on the last ball of the innings when he was run out in an attempt to take a difficult single.

For Knight Riders, Iqbal Abdulla (1-15), Yusuf Pathan (1-25) and Balaji (1-33) took a wicket each.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

A disciplined performance in the field and an explosive 35 off 19 balls from Brad Hodge helped Kochi Tuskers overcome Kolkata Knight Riders in the last match at the Nehru Stadium this IPL season.

Hodge’s last over blitz, in which he took 21 runs off countryman Brett Lee, proved to be the difference between the two sides, as Kochi defended 156 by 17 runs. In the chase, RP Singh and Sreesanth failed to get the same kind of movement that Brett Lee extracted early in the Kochi innings. Jacques Kallis and Eoin Morgan didn’t have to take many risks early on as there were many poor deliveries that were smacked to the boundary. In the first three overs, the bulk of the short and wide ones came from RP Singh.

R Vinay Kumar and Prasanth Parameswaran pulled back the chase before it raged out of control with a selection of back of a length deliveries that proved difficult to get away. Although they kept the boundaries down, they didn’t trouble the batsmen much and failed to get a breakthrough until after the halfway stage, when Kolkata were well set. Kallis was the senior partner and easily outscored Morgan in that phase. Seven times in the first ten overs Kallis stole the strike at the end of the over.

Just as Kallis looked as though he had grown roots, Raiphi Gomez rattled Kolkata with a double strike in his second over. He bowled Kallis with a legcutter and had Gautam Gambhir caught in the covers off consecutive balls, which left Morgan to assume the senior role. Manoj Tiwary could not last long, and Yusuf Pathan was expected to counterattack, but he and Morgan were frustrated by Gomez’s variations and Parameswaran’s accurate fuller deliveries. Sreesanth let the noose loosen, giving Morgan back-to-back boundaries but Vinay Kumar was on hand to tighten it. Confusions between Morgan and Yusuf mounted in Vinay’s last over, and Morgan was run out when both batsmen ended up at the wicketkeeper’s end.

It brought Brett Lee to the crease, in poetic justice for the last over he bowled, which went for 21. There were 25 to get off the last over of Kolkata’s innings. Lee was run-out and the task proved too steep.

Kochi’s innings was anchored by a third-wicket partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Michael Klinger before being given momentum at the death by Hodge. It didn’t look as though Kochi would get over the 150-run mark, especially after the way things started. Lee’s first over was a whole bag of peaches. He got impressive away movement and started the innings with a maiden.

Some success seemed inevitable after the start Kolkata got and it came from Jaidev Unadkat, although he hardly deserved it. He banged one in, too short and too wide outside off that Brendon McCullum chased and his fine edge nestled in Kallis’ hands at slip.

Parthiv Patel came in at No. 3 and opened his account with two stunning boundaries. He looked energetic and confident in his strokeplay and dealt with Unadkat’s bouncer and the introduction of spin, in the form of Iqbal Abdulla, with relative ease. Surprisingly, it was the short ball that undid him, when he charged down the track and miscued a pull shot to midwicket.

The stage was set for Jayawardene to play an innings of authority and, with Klinger at the other end, he did exactly that. They played creative cricket, managing a boundary off five of the seven overs they were together for and pushed each other to take singles before Klinger holed out. When Abdulla got the wicket of Ravindra Jadeja for eight, Kochi were being pegged back and some impetus was needed.

The floodgates were opened with Jayawardene’s six over long leg at the start of the 17th over and Kochi put on 54 runs in the final four overs, with Hodge’s fireworks yielding almost half of those.

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo‘s South Africa correspondent

Deccan Chargers dropped too many catches in the first half of the game to allow Kolkata Knight Riders to motor along to 169, and then dropped intensity alarmingly in the chase to succumb to their sixth defeat in nine games. Yusuf Pathan was the biggest beneficiary of Deccan’s fielding largesse, surviving three clangers to pummel his way to his highest score of the season. His assault yielded 47 off 26 balls, and he helped Kolkata double their score in the last eight overs in Manoj Tiwary’s company.

Deccan’s pursuit followed a similar template to their misfiring chase against Chennai: Sunny Sohal kept opening up the off side and swiping in hope and Shikhar Dhawan once again receded into a shell after starting with promise. As he has done regularly this season, Iqbal Abdulla made things happen, removing Sohal and Kumar Sangakkara in his second over with clever changes of pace. Cameron White then crawled listlessly as the chase slumped to a mid-innings comatose. Rajat Bhatia put White out of his misery in the 11th over, and the game was over as a contest when Daniel Christian was wrongly adjudged lbw three balls later. Dhawan tried to reignite Deccan’s hopes, but the innings had meandered too far off course by then.

It seemed unlikely that Deccan would be chasing 170 when they limited Kolkata to 84 for 3 by the 12th over. Gautam Gambhir exited at that pivotal juncture, leaving two new batsmen to do a repair job. Deccan, however, simply refused to seize the moment. Pragyan Ojha kept attacking with flight, and Yusuf tried to break free by lofting over the leg side. He was beaten in the air, though, and Amit Mishra ran back at long-off to get under the mis-hit. Drop. In the next over, Mishra had Yusuf miscuing in the same direction, towards Christian. Another drop. The next ball was whacked with the turn over the extra-cover boundary, and Kolkata never looked back.

Sangakkara missed a trick by holding Dale Steyn’s second spell back until the 16th over. Yusuf had got his eye in by then, and the fact that Tiwary faced that entire over did not help Deccan’s cause. Tiwary looted two off-side fours off Steyn, before Yusuf thumped Ishant Sharma for a massive six over long-on. By the time Dhawan grassed Yusuf again in the 19th over, Deccan were in damage-control mode, and doing a poor job at it. Tiwary launched Christian for six more, before Yusuf fore-handed Ishant and whipped Steyn for boundaries to ensure Kolkata finished with a bang.

The start of Kolkata’s innings was a dawdle by comparison, in spite of Eoin Morgan’s innate energy at the crease. He nearly ran himself out first ball, and charged out to the third and dumped Christian over long-on for a six. Thereafter Jacques Kallis settled into accumulation mode. He checked in with a typically pristine set of boundaries, charming Steyn through the covers, before redirecting short balls from Ishant on either side of the wicket for fours.

Gambhir took charge after Christian foxed Morgan with a slow offcutter. Gambhir lofted his first ball emphatically over the covers for four, before slashing Ojha through point. His joust with Christian was the most captivating mini-battle of the session, and included a heaved pull for six, a drop, a collision and a heated exchange of words. Kolkata progressed to 73 in the first ten overs, and Deccan were in need of some inspiration. The spinners produced just that, with Mishra foxing Kallis in the flight and Ojha hoodwinking Gambhir, but the fielding was about to let them down big-time. Yusuf exacted full toll, and ensured it was another forgettable night for the Hyderabad supporters who have witnessed only one home win in three-and-a-half seasons.

Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary hit unbeaten 45 and 34 respectively as Kolkata Knight Riders inflicted a crushing eight-wicket defeat on Kings XI Punjab in their IPL match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Saturday.

The unbeaten 85-run stand between Gambhir and Tiwary enabled Kolkata to chase down the 120-run target in 17.2 overs.

Gambhir hit 4 fours in his 44-ball 45 and Tiwary’s 41-ball 34 came with the help of a six and 3 fours.

The partnership came after Ryan Harris took a superb catch at deep mid-wicket to dismiss Kolkata opener Eoin Morgan off Bhargav Bhatt.

Morgan hit 6 fours in his 15-ball 28 before falling to Bhatt.

Bhatt struck on his first delivery when he had Jacques Kallis caught by David Hussey in the covers as Kolkata got off to a bad start in pursuit of 120 runs.

Earlier, Iqbal Abdulla took 2 wickets as Kolkata restricted Kings XI Punjab to 119/6 despite a well-made 42 from Dinesh Karthik.

Karthik hit 4 fours in his run-a-ball 42 before being run out.

Kings XI Punjab lost their fifth wicket when Abdulla trapped David Hussey plumb in front of the wicket.

Abdulla gave Kolkata the third breakthrough when he clean bowled Punjab captain Adam Gilchrist from between his legs.

Gilchrist looked to pull a short-pitched delivery but the ball neither turned nor bounced and went from between his legs to hit the stumps.

Kolkata lost their fourth wicket when Abhishek Nayar was run out.

Paul Valthaty and Shaun Marsh fell in successive overs as Kings XI Punjab got off to a bad start against Kolkata Knight Riders

Yusuf Pathan gave Kolkata the first breakthrough when he had Paul Valthaty caught by Manoj Tiwary at long-on in the fifth over.

In the next over, Marsh was run out as Punjab lost their second wicket.

This was after Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and chose to bowl.

Kolkata have replaced Jaidev Unadkat with Rajat Bhatia.

Punjab have brought in Bhargav Bhatt in place of Shalabh Srivastava.

Teams:

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (Capt.), Jacques Kallis, Shreevats Goswami, Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Eoin Morgan, Rajat Bhatia, Ryan ten Doeschate, Iqbal Abdulla, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Brett Lee.

Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (Capt.), Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh, Dinesh Karthik, David Hussey, Abhishek Nayar, Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Ryan Harris.

Source: Times of India

Delhi Daredevils’ all-pace attack seemed to have done enough at the halfway stage to get their team a much-required win but Kolkata Knight Riders showed their mettle to scrap their way to an 18-run victory on a two-paced Feroz Shah Kotla track.

Both teams seemed to have misread the pitch, packing their sides with quicks. It was left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla though who was the most influential of the bowlers, spinning his first ball “like Warne to Gatting” according to Brett Lee, as he nipped out three wickets in a stifling spell.

After Delhi chose to bowl, Irfan Pathan found that elusive and coveted inducker to shackle Kolkata at the start, Umesh Yadav bowled it fast and at the batsman’s chest to snuff out two key batsmen in the middle overs, and even the much-ridiculed Ajit Agarkar kept it tight in the final over.

If the usually incisive and economical Morne Morkel was Delhi’s most expensive bowler, Kolkata’s best batsman was not one of their big-money imports, but their local boy, Manoj Tiwary, who made a combative half-century to stabilise the innings.

Still, Delhi had a seemingly below-par target to chase, and that was looking even smaller when Virender Sehwag was crashing boundaries at will through the off side. A murderous blast over cover followed by a piledriver past backward point from Sehwag in the fourth over took Delhi to 28 for 1.

Everything changed in the next two overs. Abdulla, the first spinner to bowl in the match, ripped the ball a long way in the fifth over, making the ball stop and nearly had James Hopes giving a return catch. Then, Jaidev Unadkat, who was getting the ball to jag around, fired in two bouncers at Sehwag, the second of which was top-edged to fine leg.

That massive wicket and the big turn combined to squeeze the runs, and only 21 came off the next five overs before Abdulla had Irfan swiping to Ryan ten Doeschate at midwicket. With Delhi’s experiment with Tasmanian batsman Travis Birt failing, much depended on Hopes, who also perished to Abdulla; ending a patient innings with a punch to cover in the 15th over. Three balls later, Abdulla had his third with Naman Ojha mowing to the deep, and at 86 for 6 Delhi were out of it.

Shah Rukh Khan and the rest in the Kolkata camp were briefly worried when Delhi blasted 14 off the 18th over, though they were smiling again as Brett Lee killed off the game with a perfect penultimate over which had two runs and two run-outs.

That silenced the Kotla crowd, which had plenty to cheer early on as their fast bowlers tied down Kolkata’s heavyweight batting. Jacques Kallis was swallowed up in the fifth over by the exaggerated inswing Irfan was extracting and Gautam Gambhir holed out against Hopes’ no-frills bowling for 18.

Tiwary was not at his most fluent, though he muscled the odd boundary to drive Kolkata ahead. The men Kolkata expected the big hits from – Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan – perished off successive deliveries from Umesh to leave the side at 105 for 5 in 15 overs. Though only three boundaries came off the final five overs, the total ultimately proved sufficient.

With the win Kolkata became the fourth team to occupy second spot in five days. While there has been plenty of churn in the middle of the table, there’s been no change at the top and bottom for several rounds, with Delhi remaining stuck at the wrong end.

Siddarth Ravindran is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

Chris Gayle made a sparkling debut in the fourth season of the Indian Premier League as his unbeaten century helped Royal Challengers Bangalore defeat Kolkata Knight Riders by wickets at the Eden Gardens today evening. The win also came at the right time for RCB as this was only their second victory in six matches with one match being rained out; while it was the second consecutive loss for KKR.

Gayle, who replaced the injured Dirk Nannes in the RCB squad, has been engaged in a heated debate with the West Indies Cricket Board over his decision to play in the IPL instead of being considered for selection in the West Indies squad for the ODI series against Pakistan with the southpaw saying he decided to be part of the lucrative Twenty20 league only after finding out he was dropped from the squad for the first two matches.

The former West Indies captain chose to take out his frustration and anger on the hapless KKR attack as the target of 172 was with nine wickets and 11 balls to spare as RCB got their tournament back on track with a comprehensive win. Gayle, who hit the winning runs brought up his maiden IPL century, and the second scored in this tournament, with a boundary over covers off a Shakib Al Hasan delivery, remained unbeaten on 102 (55 balls, 10 boundaries and seven massive sixes).

Such was Gayle’s domination at the crease that even the normally aggressive Tillakaratne Dilshan took the back seat and enjoyed the view from the non-striker’s end before he was clean bowled by one of the few decent deliveries Lakshmipathy Balaji (1-43) bowled in the match. Dilshan was out for 38 after he and Gayle had put on 123 runs for the first wicket in 12.1 overs. In between, Gayle reached his half-century in 29 balls with five boundaries and four sixes as he was hardly tested by the KKR bowling attack. Gayle and Virat Kohli (30*) then added 52 runs in 36 balls for the second wicket to seal the win.

None of the KKR bowlers were able to make an impression on Gayle, and Gambhir surprisingly gave the ball to Iqbal Abdulla only in the 16th over of the RCB innings on the slow Eden track.

Earlier, Yusuf Pathan defied a troublesome knee to bat at number four and played a 24-ball cameo as his big-hitting abilities helped KKR regain the impetus at a crucial time in the second half of their innings against RCB.

Pathan came into bat at the fall of Jacques Kallis’s wicket with KKR 102 in 13.2 overs and the Baroda all-rounder made his intentions clear when he smashed J Syed Mohammad for a huge six over long on off just the sixth delivery he faced. He also hit sixes off RCB’s skipper Daniel Vettori and Sreenath Aravind. Yusuf, who was clearly hampered by his knee while running, also hit two of his three boundaries off Aravind before the bowler had him caught by Virat Kohli in the last over of the KKR innings. Pathan’s 46, Gambhir’s 48 and Kallis (40) helped KKR score 171 for 5 even as RCB’s new ball pair of Zaheer Khan and Aravind conceded 90 runs in the seven overs they bowled between themselves.

Zaheer (4-0-53-0) had a horrid time with the ball from the first ball of the match when Kallis got KKR’s innings away with a boundary before adding two more hits to the fence in the same over. The Indian left-arm bowler didn’t help his cause by bowling seven wides in the over, including a five-wide delivery as he conceded 19 runs in that over. Things went from bad to worse for RCB when Brad Haddin, playing in place of Brett Lee, hit a six and boundary off Aravind’s first over as KKR raced away to 33 for 0 in two overs. The introduction of spin in the form of Syed Mohammad slowed down the scoring rate and the left-arm spinner, who conceded only two runs in his first two overs, got rid of Haddin (18) when he had him caught by Kohli at point after the KKR openers had added 44 for the first wicket.

RCB’s spin bowlers continued to keep the Knight Riders’ batsmen in check on the slow Eden Gardens pitch even as Kallis found it difficult to keep the scoreboard ticking over after his fast start; fortunately for KKR, Gambhir took over the bulk of the run-scoring responsibilities and hit some sweetly timed boundaries in between as he also rotated the strike. Kallis was fortunate when AB de Villiers failed to stump him off Mohammad, but he was out soon after when Gayle, took a leaping catch at short extra cover to end the 58-run partnership between the South African and Gambhir. Aravind (2-37) then dismissed Gambhir when he had him caught by Dilshan at extra cover before Pathan hit him for a six and two boundaries in the same over.

Mohammad (1-20) and Vettori (1-28) were the pick of the RCB bowlers with Gayle, Dilshan and Kohli bowling four overs between themselves.

Source: Akshay Iyer, Yahoo! Cricket