Published: Apr 24, 2014, 09:41 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 24, 2014, 10:16 PM (IST)
By Abhijit Banare
Apr 24, 2014
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) restricted Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to 150 for seven in the 11th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014. On the typical shiny Sharjah pitch, this could be a below par score. Chris Lynn’s enterprising 41 and Jacques Kallis’ 43 were the highlights of the innings for the batting side. It was a disciplined show from the RCB pacers with Varun Aaron picking three wickets.
Kolkata had a similar start to their previous two matches, skipper Gautam Gambhir once again dismissed for a duck. It’s frustrating not just for the batsman but for the team as well. This is Gambhir’s third duck in a row and two of them are golden ducks. Some other day, Gambhir would have guided that yorker on the leg-side, but this time around Mitchell Starc had it easy as the left-hander failed to get his bat down in time and was caught plumb in front. What hirt Kolkata was the wicket that followed. Manish Pandey has been the consistent performer in the previous matches but this time around a leading edge off Albie Morkel flew straight to Virat Kohli at short point. Kolkata had pushed themselves behind right from the start.
Once again the task of resurrecting the innings was left to the veteran Kallis along with Lynn who surprisingly replaced Shakib Al Hasan on a slow Sharjah wicket. While Kallis guided the ball in to the gaps, Lynn was busy going for the big shots. Despite being two down, Lynn didn’t hesitate in going after the bowlers. He hammered a straight drive off Varun Aaron and followed it up with consecutive boundaries off Morkel in the following over.
Lynn’s aggression eased up the pressure after the early jolt. You know it’s the ruthless T20 when reputations don’t matter. Muttiah Muralitharan, playing for the first time this season was welcomed after the powerplay with a huge six over midwicket by Lynn. The fearless batsman from Brisbane had his own share of beginner’s luck in the IPL. One of his wild slog was caught in the deep by Starc but his legs brushed the boundary line. Muralitharan had gone for 25 inn two overs.
The way Lynn was swinging his bat, Bangalore always had the wicket-taking opportunity round the corner. After he raced up to 41 from 24 in the ninth over, Lynn didn’t get much strike and the frustration was apparent. He finally ran out of patience and holed out a catch to AB de Villiers at long-off. His enterprising innings of 45 from 31 balls included three fours and a sixes each. Along with Kallis, he shared a partnership of 80 from 61 balls.
It was a perfect stage for Yusuf Pathan but he had a brain freeze situation slogging a fuller delivery straight to mid-off thereby giving Aaron two scalps in an over. Robin Uthappa and Kallis then steered the innings before Yuzvendra Chahal gave a key breakthrough removing Kallis for 44. Chahal has been a revelation this season and once again was the most impressive bowler. While the rest were being hit, Chahal conceded 26 in his four.
Kolkata lost their way at a stage when they were supposed to pick up the ante. With Uthappa and Suryakumar Yadav on the crease, they still had the ammunition to go big. The 17th over from Starc turned out to be a productive one with two sixes. But Uthappa’s cameo came to an end when he was caught by Starc in the deep in the next over. Aaron was impressive today bowling consistently at over 140kphs and unsettling the batsmen. He conceded only 16 and picked three wickets.
Kolkata have found a good finished in Suryakumar Yadav who once again played a cameo of 24 from 18. But Kolkata will rue the fact that they lost wickets at crucial junctures. With teh quality of batting line-up, this is an easy chase for Bangalore.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 150 for 7 in 20 overs (Jacques Kallis 43, Chris Lynn 45; Varun Aaron 3 for 16, Yuzvendra Chahal 1 for 26) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore
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(Abhijit Banare is a reporter at CricketCountry. He is an avid quizzer and loves to analyse and dig out interesting facts which allows him to learn something new every day. Apart from cricket he also likes to keep a sharp eye on Indian politics, and can be followed on Twitter and blog)
