Ken Borland

They were cheering all the way from Cape Town to Dhaka, from Haryana to Bengal to Kolkata, as the Knight Riders snatched a thrilling five-wicket victory over the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League final at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk on Sunday.

 http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120527/KKR_finally_IPL_champs_with_thriller

Chennai, the two-time defending champions, looked well beaten despite defending 191 as Manvinder Bisla of Haryana, and Jacques Kallis, Cape Town’s finest, added 136 for the second wicket in 13.4 overs.

But with Bisla outfoxed by Albie Morkel for a scintillating 89 off 48 balls, announcing himself as a great talent, and Kallis, laid low by cramps, falling for 69 in the penultimate over, Kolkata needed 16 off seven balls as the Super Kings staged a fantastic fightback.

But Bangladeshi star Shakib al-Hasan, who may well be the new best all-rounder in the world once Kallis retires, scored seven runs off the last ball of the over as Ben Hilfenhaus bowled a no-ball for height and Dhaka’s hero then innovated with a scoop for four off the extra delivery.

Manoj Tiwary, one of the new generation of Indian batting stars, then struck two fours in the final over to clinch victory with two balls to spare and spark massive celebrations in his home state of Bengal.

Chasing such a daunting target, Kolkata seemed to have suffered a mortal blow in the first over when captain Gautam Gambhir missed with a rash swish across the line and was bowled by Hilfenhaus for just two.

But Bisla showed he was equipped to play a match-winning innings on the big stage. Brought in to replace seasoned New Zealand international Brendon McCullum, because Brett Lee had to return to boost the bowling attack after Lakshmipathy Balaji failed to recover from a hamstring injury, he showed enormous self-belief against the Goliaths of the IPL and an international-strength attack.

It was David’s night as everything Bisla tried came off, the 27-year-old hammering eight fours and five sixes. He was helped immeasurably by having the experienced Kallis at his side, the South African showing great skill in placing the ball in the gaps and giving Bisla the strike.

And once Bisla cut a slower-ball bouncer from Morkel to backward point in the 15th over, with 52 runs still needed, Kallis knew he had to step up and take over the aggressor’s role.

Playing superb strokes all over the park, Kallis went to town against the bowling of Dwayne Bravo in particular as he kept the Knight Riders in the game.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla swung straight to deep midwicket to give Bravo the consolation of a wicket, while Yusuf Pathan sliced a slog-sweep off off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin to fall for just a single.

Hilfenhaus was very happy when he ended Kallis’s 49-ball innings by having him caught by the cover-sweeper in the 19th over, but that soon turned to heartache.

And then Bravo, left to defend nine runs in the final over, did not seem to know whether to bowl short or full and was punished as a result.

Tiwary punched successive boundaries through the leg-side and the IPL trophy was in the box for Kolkata, giving movie star owner Shah Rukh Khan some reward at last.

Hilfenhaus had bowled brilliantly up front to put the Knight Riders under early pressure and finished with225 in his four overs, while Morkel bowled an outstanding spell of two overs, 1-12, in the closing stages to drag Chennai back into the contest.

But the other Super Kings bowlers failed to back up the new-ball pair, with Bravo (3.4-0-49-1) and spinners Shadab Jakati (4-0-38-0) and Ashwin (4-0-41-1) failing to adapt to a flat pitch.

SCINTILATING RAINA

Suresh Raina had earlier blasted the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers all over the park as he led the Chennai Super Kings to a commanding 190 for three.

On an easy-paced pitch, all the Chennai batsmen looked comfortable with Murali Vijay (42), Mike Hussey (54) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (14* off 9 balls) all contributing in an exceptional display by the top-order.

Raina’s scintillating 73 off 38 balls merely increased the pressure on the Kolkata bowlers after openers Vijay and Hussey had plundered 86 runs in 10 overs.

Hussey, normally the accumulator, did not sit back on this grand occasion, galloping to his 50 off 38 balls, with four fours and two sixes and some wonderfully clever strokeplay and manipulation of the field.

With Vijay conducting a similarly brutal assault on the bowling, picking up four fours and a six off 32 balls, the runs kept flowing for Chennai as the first wicket put on 87 off just 64 balls.

Vijay fell in the 11th over to a beautifully-judged, diving catch on the square-leg boundary by Shakib, giving medium-pacer Rajat Bhatia his only wicket.

But that brought Raina to the crease and that’s when life really became busy for the stats men.

The chunky left-hander smashed five sixes, four of them over midwicket, and three fours as he added 73 for the second wicket with Hussey off just 41 deliveries and made his highest score in this year’s IPL.

Kallis bowled Hussey in the 18th over, but the inspired Raina batted on until the last ball, which he slog-swept off the bottom of the bat, Brett Lee having to dash in sharply from cow-corner to get the ball in his hands.

The wicket was just reward for left-arm spinner Shakib, who conceded just eight runs in the final over.

Shakib and Bhatia both bowled just three overs, conceding 25 and 23 runs respectively, while the other wicket-taker, Kallis, was also reasonably tidy, conceding 34 runs in his four overs.

But key bowlers Sunil Narine and Lee were less successful with ball in hand, conceding 37 and 42 runs respectively in their four overs.

Heyneke Meyer, who built the Bulls team that has provided the foundation of the Springbok squad for the last eight years, was named as the new South Africa national coach in Cape Town on Friday.

The 44-year-old Meyer, who steered the Bulls to four Currie Cup titles between 2002 and 2006 and then their first Super 14 crown in 2007, has been appointed on a four-year contract.
“It’s truly humbling but also a huge honour and responsibility because the Springboks carry the hopes and dreams of the whole country,” Meyer said at a news conference in Cape Town on Friday. “I want to get the support of everyone behind the team and to do that I have to pick the best possible team. I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep, it would be easy to promise the world, but I need to plan very thoroughly.”

Former Leicester coach Meyer succeeds the controversial Peter de Villiers, who won a single Tri-Nations title and beat the British and Irish Lions in 2009 before guiding the Springboks to the quarterfinals of last year’s World Cup in New Zealand.
Meyer had initially been the favourite to succeed Jake White in 2008 when De Villiers was appointed, and he subsequently quit rugby before joining Leicester in June 2008.

South African Rugby Union (Saru) chief executive Jurie Roux said they had head-hunted Meyer this time around.

“This process started on June 9 last year and the timeline was set to today. We decided to head-hunt the Springbok coach because we knew exactly what we required. Our mandate was simple – to get the best coach to make the Springboks a winning team,” Roux said.
The qualified sports psychologist has been named by lock Victor Matfield, the most-capped Springbok, as the best coach he ever worked under.

Meyer is currently the rugby executive at the Bulls, but Roux said they had no option but to release him for the Springbok job.

“There is no breach of contract because Heyneke had a very definite exit clause for the appropriate position, which this obviously is,” Roux said.

Former Springbok and current Ireland forwards coach Gert Smal was thought to be the frontrunner to succeed De Villiers, but has recently signed an extension until 2013 to his contract with Ireland, leading to Saru’s seemingly rushed negotiations with the Bulls.

Meyer said that he believed it was his calling to eventually coach the Springboks.

“It’s been a long path with the Bulls, but we both realise there are bigger things. I believe that it is my calling to be the coach of the whole nation, not just one province.”

Meyer said that his first task would be to appoint his back-up staff, in consultation with Roux.

“It’s very important that we have the best people involved and a lot of them are in contract – if they aren’t it means that they’re probably not good enough. So there will have to be a lot of negotiation. The national coach shouldn’t have an ego and it would be arrogant for me just to rely on my own resources.”

Meyer said he will also be travelling around the franchises to learn about the character of the men he will be considering for the Springbok team and that it would be too early to name a captain in the wake of John Smit’s retirement.

“We have a very tough start against England, but I’m up for the challenge and we have brilliant players. There are only two types of rugby I know – winning rugby and losing rugby – and I prefer the first one.

“The World Cup is obviously very important to win, but I’m a big believer that whenever you’re on the field, you have to want to win.

“I’m not there to build a Springbok team, I’m there to win,” Meyer said.

England will be the new coach’s first opponents when they come to South Africa in June to play three tests.

South Africa took a lot of heat off themselves with their emphatic four-day victory over Sri Lanka in Cape Town, but in a way they merely added more fuel to the perceptions of the fans.

Led by Jacques Kallis, the greatest cricketer of the modern game, the Sri Lankans were blown away by 10 wickets, the quality of the performance matching the margin of victory.

And quality is the operative word.

Because that is the over-riding feature of a side that boasts the sort of talent throughout the line-up that should be the envy of the other nine Test-playing nations.

Other than perhaps an opening batsman’s berth, the number six position and the spinner, every post in the team is filled by a world-class, proven star, a challenger for a place in a World XI.

But their actual record as a team is another story.

A 208-run defeat by a Sri Lankan team that has perhaps half their talent in Durban in the previous test understandably caused immense frustration amongst the Proteas’ followers.

While captain Graeme Smith acknowledged the team’s continued failure to meet expectations at Kingsmead, he seemed surprised by the public reaction that has been partly quelled by their slick Newlands showing.

“Someone always seems to be on the chopping block, whether it’s Jacques having bad eyes or something else. But we haven’t lost too many Tests at home, we’ve just lacked a killer punch and Durban was again a big disappointment for us,” Smith said.

“That was a big wake-up call for the team because that was not the sort of performance expected of us. But there’s a lot to build on from this win and the way we won was the most important thing,” he said.

“We’ve played well at home, just not in Durban. It’s our job to turn that around. We just need to improve in Durban, but we haven’t had a great time in one-day cricket there either, so I think it’s a venue thing.”

Kallis celebrated his 150^th Test in style as he plundered a career-best 224 off the Sri Lankan attack, took three for 35 to wrap up their second innings and took a South African record-equalling six catches in the match.

“Newlands is always a special place to play for me, it’s always been my favourite ground. Even as a kid, I would come here to play, even when it’s empty it’s a special place.

“To play my 150^th Test here, to have the team’s victory and, from a personal point of view, to have the sort of performance you dream of – I couldn’t have asked for better,” Kallis said.

While Kallis shut up his critics in the most emphatic fashion, the vultures are still circling around wicketkeeper/batsman Mark Boucher’s head, although Smith had his back.

“There’s no problem with Boucher, it was the first time I’ve seen him drop a catch in ages. He took nearly 10 catches in Pretoria [eight in the first Test at Centurion] and everyone was raving about his performance. As a gloveman, he’s been excellent for us, ultra-reliable and I think that’s why such a fuss is being made about that one drop. When we go to England, having a reliable wicketkeeper will be crucial,” the captain said.