Kolkata Knight Riders won by 17 runs

Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2011, Delhi

Kolkata fight back to keep Delhi bottom

The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran

April 28, 2011

Iqbal Abdulla

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.

Match Meter KKRDD Gambhir falls: Kolkata slipped to 82 for 3 in the 12th over as Gambhir holes out DD Umesh's two-in-two: Kolkata's two dangerous batsmen, Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan, fall on consecutive deliveries in the 15th over to put Delhi on top KKRDD Sehwag bounced out: Unadkat slips in two short deliveries in a row, the second of which is top-edged to fine leg by Sehwag KKR Abdulla strikes: Hopes slashes a short ball to cover, and Delhi's chances evaporate as they slide to 83 for 5  Advantage Honours even

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

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala

Kochi v Bangalore, IPL 2011, Kochi

Cool de Villiers crashes Kochi party

The Bulletin by Sriram Veera

April 9, 2011

Five blistering sixes from AB de Villiers, and his 52-run partnership with Saurabh Tiwary, won the night for Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The first came in the ninth over in which Sreesanth leaked 15 runs as Bangalore moved to 80 for 2. It was a full delivery, off a free hit, and de Villiers went down on a bent knee to paddle-scoop it for a stunning six over fine-leg. The next blitz from him came after spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Ravindra Jadeja choked up the run flow in the next few overs. With 33 runs required from the last three overs, de Villiers imposed himself against Raiphi Gomez, who was asked to bowl his first over in that pressure situation. The second delivery was smashed over midwicket, the fifth disappeared over long-off and the final delivery was bulldozed over long-on. Game over.

AB de Villiers

It wouldn't have been an easy decision for Mahela Jayawardene, Kochi's captain, to turn to Gomez but RP Singh's poor effort in the 15th over must have forced his hand. With 59 runs needed from the last six overs, RP Singh bowled a poor over. The first delivery was outside leg stump and Saurabh Tiwary shoved it to the fine-leg boundary. The second was a wide, the third was spanked to the straight boundary, and he kept bowling length and went for 15 runs.

Bangalore played the waiting game well; they saw out Muralitharan and treated Jadeja with some caution as they knew the seamers could be taken for plenty. It was the same resolve that saw them come back in the game with the ball and restrict Kochi to 161 after Brendon McCullum and VVS Laxman had added 80 runs in the first nine overs.

McCullum and Laxman are as different as a Bollywood masala flick and art-house cinema, but they combined superbly to lay a good platform. McCullum was the McCullum the world knows: aggressive, adrenaline-pumping and audacious as ever. He sashayed down the track in the first over to slap a Zaheer Khan delivery over extra cover, but really exploded in the second over against Dirk Nannes. A blasted off drive was followed with a slashed boundary but it was a thunderous pull over the midwicket boundary that really tested the lung power of the home crowd.

Laxman has been itching for the IPL to start to prove his worth in the shortest format of the game. There were a few lovely hits: a late cut for four against Tillakaratne Dilshan, lofted on drives on a bent knee and a couple of flicks, but it was a flat-batted thumping six over long-on that really declared his ambition to do well in this tournament. It was a short-of-length delivery from Abhimanyu Mithun, who must have been really shocked to see Laxman back away and flat-bat it over the boundary.

Match Meter

• 
  RCB
• Brendon McCullum fell in the 12th over, top edging a paddle scoop against Virat Kohli. Kochi were 93 for 2 at that stage and McCullum's wicket proved the key as it slowed down the run rate

• 
  RCB
• Mahela Jayawardene fell in the 16th over, stumped off Daniel Vettori to leave Kochi wobbling at 124 for 3

• 
  KTK
• Sreesanth took out Tillakaratne Dilshan in the second over to give Kochi an early breakthrough in the chase

• 
  RCB
• With 33 runs required from the last three overs, AB de Villiers hit three sixes against Raiphi Gomez to turn the game around.

 Advantage Honours even

However, slowly, and surely, Bangalore began to claw their way back. In the final delivery of the ninth over, Laxman slog-swept Dilshan straight to deep midwicket, and in the 12th over, McCullum fell, top-edging a paddle scoop off Virat Kohli. Suddenly, the slow bowlers began to apply the squeeze. The legspinner Asad Pathan combined well with Kohli to keep Brad Hodge and Mahela Jayawardene in check. Jayawardene tried to break free against Daniel Vettori but was stumped in the 15th over, and Brad Hodge was yorked by Zaheer Khan in the 18th over.

It was left to Jadeja, who showed maturity in his shot selection, preferring the straight hits down the ground instead of across-the-line heaves, to push the score along. He did his bit with the ball too but it didn't prove enough.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

Chennai Super Kings beat Kolkata Knight Riders by two runs

Chennai v Kolkata, IPL 2011, Chennai

Chennai sneak last-ball victory

The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran

Jacques Kallis plays a pull
 Chennai v Kolkata, IPL 2011
 Chennai, April 8, 2011©AFP

With the country still basking in the afterglow of a World Cup win, the IPL needed a nailbiter to grab the already sated fans' attention and there was one at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Three-quarters through the game, Kolkata Knight Riders were walking to victory before a brilliant run-out from MS Dhoni helped Chennai Super Kings stay in the game. Then, Jacques Kallis holed out attempting a a cute paddle-sweep, Eoin Morgan was undone by the part-time spin of Suresh Raina, and Gautam Gambhir added another chapter to his book of crazy running to leave the capacity Chennai crowd sensing victory.

Even after the big guns of the Kolkata batting were gone, the target wasn't exactly out of reach. Though one more of Dhoni's gambles paid off with two massive wickets - Morgan and Gambhir - falling in Raina's 17th over, Kolkata still needed 33 off the final three overs. That boiled down to an even more difficult 26 off 12 deliveries after Tim Southee showed off his death-over skills with a tight over.

Time for another swing in the game as Suraj Randiv, on IPL debut, was hammered by Manoj Tiwary, the biggest Bengali name in the side after the exit of Sourav Ganguly. After Laxmi Ratan Shukla's plucky reverse-sweep fetched him a boundary off the first ball, Tiwary slammed a couple of big leg-side sixes bring it down to nine off eight. Kolkata favourites at that stage.

.

Match Meter CSK Morgan shells it: By the 11th over, Chennai were already 80 for 1, when Eoin Morgan dropped an easy chance at deep midwicket to dismiss Anirudha CSKKKR Dhoni dismissed: Chennai were struggling to hit top gear towards the end of the innings despite having plenty of wickets in hand, and Kallis getting Dhoni to edge to the keeper dragged Chennai further KKR Kallis cruise: A thump past point brought Kallis his third boundary in four balls and sent Kolkata to a comfortable 87 for 1 in the 12th over CSK Raina gamble: The decision to give Raina the 17th over worked, with Morgan beaten by the turn to be stumped and Gambhir running himself out, as Kolkata slid to 120 for 5 KKR Tiwary's double: Just as all seemed lost, Tiwary unleashed a couple of huge sixes off Randiv in the 19th over to make the equation a manageable nine from eight CSK Southee's yorkers: A series of near unplayable deliveries in the final over, especially by new batsmen lower down the order, seals the victory for Chennai  Advantage Honours even

To Randiv's credit, he fought back on the final two deliveries of the over. He switched to round the wicket and fired it quicker and wider on the penultimate ball, and then got the breakthrough on the last delivery, sneaking it past the outside edge to give Dhoni an easy stumping.

The tension-filled final over started with an outrageous stroke from Shukla, paddling a full ball from way outside off to square leg for a couple. Off Southee's next ball Shukla was caught at short-third man, leaving two new batsmen at the crease, and five needed off three. Iqbal Abdulla slapped one over midwicket for two, before Southee resorted to inch-perfect yorkers. It came down to four required off the final delivery; after prolonged discussions with the captain, Southee sent down an into-the-legs yorker which was too good for Rajat Bhatia. Only a single resulted and Dhoni's charmed run as captain continued.

A close game seemed unlikely when Kallis had been giving another demonstration of how Twenty20 batting doesn't need power-hitting. He capitalised when the bowler erred, highlighted by the fourth over from Southee. The bowler was too wide once, too short once and too straight once; each time Kallis dispatched him for boundaries, and as he guided Kolkata to 92 for 1 in 12 overs, Chennai's total seemed completely inadequate.

Chennai's strong batting hadn't made the most of a generous Kolkata fielding performance and the innocuous attack, which lacked any world-class bowlers. S Anirudha and Suresh Raina capitalised on three dropped chances to power Chennai to a strong 78 for 1, before Raina fell attempting a slog sweep. That slowed the pace down, and despite a six each from MS Dhoni and Anirudha off an over from legspinner Sarajbit Ladda, only 43 came between the 11th and 16th overs.

Chennai needed some big hits towards the end, but a series of slower bouncers from L Balaji and Kallis kept the runs in check. Albie Morkel showed off his strength hitting down the ground, muscling a four and a six off the final two deliveries to lift the score past 150. It hadn't seemed enough, but Chennai's spinners thrived on the turn available to ensure the new-look Kolkata side didn't get off to a winning start.