By Suneer Chowdhary
It looked like a regulation victory for the Kolkata Knight Riders for most part of the final quarter of the game. With 44 needed off the last three overs followed by the dismissal of Kieron Pollard in that over, the game looked all over bar the shouting.
Published: May 22, 2011, 11:57 PM (IST)
Edited: May 22, 2011, 11:57 PM (IST)
The win over Kolkata Knight Riders will boost Mumbai Indians’ morale © AFP
By Suneer Chowdhary
Kolkata: May 22, 2011
It looked like a regulation victory for the Kolkata Knight Riders for most part of the final quarter of the game. With 44 needed off the last three overs followed by the dismissal of Kieron Pollard in that over, the game looked all over bar the shouting.
Balaji conceded 14 and yet a good over from Lee pushed the equation up to 21 to win off the last over, with James Franklin and Ambati Rayadu at crease.
Six balls later, the Eden Gardens was silenced by Franklin’s four successive boundaries and completely stunned by a six off the last ball by Rayadu that took them to the third spot in the table.
With the Super Kings going down to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the previous game of the IPL, a win in this game would take Kolkata to the second spot, hence, allowing them a couple of shots at entering their first ever IPL final. Mumbai, on the other hand, needed to win it to ensure that the losing confidence from going down in three games in a row could be stalled.
Kolkata went in unchanged while Mumbai Indians dropped Dhawal Kulkarni and Andrew Symonds and replaced them with Abu Nechim and Ray Price, thus attempting to strengthen the bowling.
Chasing 176 to keep the Kolkata Knight Riders out of the top two positions in the points table, the Mumbai Indians started off aggressively with three boundaries off the first over, Sachin Tendulkar hitting two of them. However, T Suman tried to repeat the dose off the first ball of the second over and perished to the spin of Iqbal Abdulla.
There was a surprise move from Mumbai Indians when they sent Harbhajan Singh to the number three position. He started off slowly but he did get going towards the end of the Powerplay overs, eking out 18 off the sixth over sent down by L Balaji.
Just when one thought that the Mumbai Indians had finally arrived with their batting after three successive failures, Harbhajan’s 29-ball 30 was ended by Rajat Bhatia’s slow dibbly-dobblies.
Much like how James Franklin had earlier slowed the Kolkata scoring down, it was Bhatia’s four over-spell broke the Mumbai back. After getting rid of Harbhajan, he had Rohit Sharma edging one to the wicket-keeper and then getting the better of Tendulkar. He deceived Tendulkar with a slower ball who spooned the ball into the covers for an easy catch.
At this stage, they needed 79 from the last 7.3 overs off a pitch that was allowing the ball to grip with every passing over.
A lot was expected out of Kieron Pollard but his poor form continued to raise questions about his inclusion in the side over Andrew Symonds. He batted out 22 balls for his 18 but just when his side needed him to blast the runs, his stumps were sent cartwheeling by Balaji.
It was Franklin who seemed to have got back his batting form of the previous year, getting a six off Abdulla but his best period came in the final over of the game when, needing 21 off the last over, he blasted off four boundaries off the first four balls of the over.
The hapless bowler was Balaji who then conceded a single off the penultimate ball to get the equation down to four needed off the last ball and Rayadu on strike. In a moment that was so reminiscent of Javed Miandad’s last ball six off Chetan Sharma at Sharjah, Rayadu slammed a full-toss from Balaji over the mid-wicket fence for a six.
Earlier, Kolkata knew that a win would see them through to the top two positions in the points table and hence allow them a better chance to get to the final of the Indian Premier League. They batted with much purpose and scored 175 in their 20 overs, a target that looked defendable for most part of the game.
What stood out in the Kolkata innings was the fact that each time they lost a wicket and it seemed like the Mumbai Indians were coming back into the game, there was a flurry of boundaries that took the Knight Riders away.
Sreevats Goswami departed early, while Gambhir hit one six and was dismissed off the next ball.
Manoj Tiwary provided the early momentum with a couple of boundaries in the first over he batted, before exploding against the IPL-debutant Ray Price. Price conceded a six and a four in that over.
Tiwary continued to bat aggressively even after the Powerplay overs and the obtained momentum was continued by Yusuf Pathan who blasted a 27-ball 36.
Kallis, who had begun in a circumspect fashion while the others around him were doing all the scoring, exploded towards the end of the innings. He smashed three sixes, all of the last five balls that the South African played to push the side along to the score of 175.
Brief Scores: KKR 175 for 7 in 20 overs (Jacques Kallis 59, Yusuf Pathan 36, Manoj Tiwary 35; Abu Nechim 2 for 32, James Franklin 2 for 35) lost to MI 178 for 5 in 20 overs (James Franklin 45*, Sachin Tendulkar 38, Harbhajan Singh 30; Rajat Bhatia 3 for 22, Iqbal Abdulla 1 for 26) by 5 wickets.
Man of the Match: James Franklin
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
