Kolkata Knight Riders brought their campaign back on track with a 42-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Tuesday.
The RCB captain Daniel Vettori won the toss and put Kolkata into bat on a batting beauty. Sent into bat, the KKR posted a challenging 165/8 in 20 overs, thanks to some brilliant batting by KKR captain Gautam Gambhir, who struck a strokeful 64 in just 39 balls which included nine fours and one six.
Manvinder Bisla, the surprising choice at number 3 took the mantle of the attacker from Gambhir. He launched into the spinners and at one point of time, after 12 overs, had played more deliveries than his skipper. Both put on a 65 run stand in 43 balls and Kolkata were looking at a target well in excess of 180-200 at that point of time. But unfortunately it was not to be. KKR finally ended their 20 overs at 165/8, about 25 runs less than what they would have asked for.
The
Royals Challengers Bangalore had a disastrous start to their run chase, losing four of their top batsman for just 25 runs with pacers Kallis and Balaji claiming two wickets each.
Kallis started the proceeding in the second over, sending back opener Cheteshwar Pujara (6) who was caught at slip and later, the South African all-rounder scalped the prized wicket of Chris Gayle in his next over. The burly Jamaican fell for just 2 when he tried to pull a short delivery from Kallis over midwicket, ending up top-edging the ball to Laxmi Shukla at mid-on.
Balaji then got ino the act and dismissed Virat Kohli (6) in the sixth over to leave the hosts tottering at 20 for three. Kohli miscued a short and ended up giving a catch to Manoj Tiwari at point.
Nine balls later, the Tamil Nadu pacer cleaned up AB de Villiers (10) and then dismissed Mayank Agarwal (5) in his next over as RCB were looked down the barrel at 33 for five.
Skipper Daniel Vettori (20) then joined Saurabh Tiwary (18) but the New Zealander also couldn't stay longer and was sent packing by Balaji in the 12th over.
Balaji disturbed Vettori's off-stump with a slow length delivery to claim his fourth victim. When Ryan ten Doeschate, the Dutch all rounder claimed the wicket of Saurabh Tiwary in the 15th over, RCB were already staring at defeat with the score on 78/7. R Vinay Kumar (25*), HV Patel (10) and Zaheer Khan (11*) tried to salvage some pride, but it was too much for them.
Scorecard:Kolkata Knight Riders : 165/8 in 20 ovsGautam Gambhir - 64
Vinay Kumar - 2/18
Royal Challengers Bangalore : 123/9 in 20 ovsVinay Kumar - 25
Lakshmipathy Balaji - 4/18
Man of the Match: Lakshmipathy Balaji
After the undefeated 122-run fourth-wicket stand
between de Villiers (59 off 23 Balls, 3x4’s, 5x6’s) and Tillakaratne
Dilshan (76 off 58 balls, 10x4’s, 1x6’s) propelled Bangalore to 189 for
three, Appanna mystified the Rajasthan batsman with his slow left-arm
bowling, which saw him return figures of 4-19, at the Sawai Mansingh
Stadium.
