Ken Borland

The Kolkata Knight Riders were hard-pressed to match Rohit Sharma’s sensational century and they subsided to a 27-run defeat at the hands of the Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match at Eden Gardens on Saturday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1378591

Rohit’s dazzling 109 not out off just 60 balls left Kolkata with a daunting target of 183 and they could only manage 155 for four.

As much as Rohit’s innings took the match away from the Knight Riders, the Mumbai bowlers were all disciplined and accurate, with the batsmen particularly unable to crack the code of Lasith Malinga (4-0-27-0) and Kieron Pollard (4-0-29-1).

Kolkata also got off to the worst of starts as they crashed to three for two in the second over.

Munaf Patel picked up the key wicket of Gautam Gambhir when he bowled him for a duck, while Manvinder Bisla (1) top-edged a slog-sweep off left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha and was caught by Munaf.

The innings obviously needed rebuilding, but the steady increase of the required run-rate was also a major problem for the Knight Riders.

Jacques Kallis, being the great professional that he is, refused to give in, however, as fought valiantly for his 79 off 60 balls. But, on a slow pitch and against a softening ball, he was unable to reproduce the explosiveness of Rohit and was forced to attempt various innovations he would barely have tried in practice.

Kallis shared a partnership of 57 in 8.2 overs with Manoj Tiwary (27), which lifted Kolkata’s hopes but ultimately he and Yusuf Pathan were left with too much to do at the end.

Malinga’s incredible ability to find the blockhole prescribes that batsmen are limited to ones and twos against him and Pollard also ensured that there would be no late dramatics as he trapped Tiwary lbw and bowled two overs for 11 runs at the death.

Pathan produced an innings of 40 not out off 31 balls that was a welcome relief to him individually after a wretched run of form but not nearly enough to change the news that Mumbai have now jumped into third place on the log.

SECOND FIDDLE

With Rohit in prime form and Herschelle Gibbs back to form a dangerous opening partnership with Sachin Tendulkar, Mumbai now have the batting to back up their powerful bowling attack and must be considered one of the favourites for the title.

Mumbai will also be delighted with their all-round bowling effort as pace bowlers Munaf (4-0-32-1) and Dwayne Smith (4-0-32-1) backed up Malinga and Pollard well.

The brilliance of Rohit carried the Mumbai Indians to a daunting 182 for one as he played one of the innings of the tournament as he belted his highest T20 score. The 25-year-old’s tremendous talent was obvious as he stroked 12 fours and five sixes.

The match also marked the return of Gibbs to IPL action and the veteran scored a well-considered 66 not off 58 balls, playing the perfect supporting role to Rohit as they added 167 off 106 deliveries for the second wicket.

The Mumbai Indians had won the toss and elected to bat first with the conditions not expected to get any better for the batsmen, and the Knight Riders struck an early blow when Shakib al-Hasan removed Tendulkar for two in the third over.

The Little Master was drawn forward to drive, but the left-arm spinner managed to get enough away movement from a quicker delivery to beat the bat and sharp wicketkeeper Bisla had the bails off in a flash.

Gibbs took three beautiful off-side boundaries off Brett Lee’s first over, but Rohit quickly marked himself as the star of the show. He hit Shakib for two fours and a six in his third over and had drawn level with Gibbs on 24 as Mumbai reached 50 off 37 balls.

Hitting boundaries to all points of the compass, Rohit raced to his half-century off 29 balls.

Kolkata’s bowlers looked powerless as Rohit had a shot for every ball, but mystery spinner Sunil Narine has baffled most batsmen in this tournament and Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir really should have bowled the West Indian against him for more than just one over in the first half of his innings.

Gibbs by this stage had committed himself to playing second fiddle and he fed Rohit the strike well as the duo raised their century partnership off 71 deliveries.

Rohit conquered Eden Gardens itself as this is just the third century scored on the famous ground’s slow pitch, the Indian prospect going to his maiden T20 hundred as he pushed Lee to midwicket for a rare single off his 52nd ball.

Gibbs went to his fifty, off 48 deliveries, off the next delivery as Mumbai went to 156 for one after 17 overs. But they managed to score just 26 runs off the last three overs as Lee and Kallis conceded just 12 runs in the last two overs.

The spinners, Shakib (4-0-27-1) and Narine (4-0-28-0) were the best of the Kolkata bowlers in the face of the third highest partnership in IPL history. The record is held by Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh, who added 206 for the second wicket for the Punjab Kings XI against Bangalore in Dharamsala last year.

David Warner and Naman Ojha added an unbroken 189 for the second wicket for the Delhi Daredevils against the Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad just two days ago.

Chris Gayle sent the Royal Challengers Bangalore off on the right foot and they maintained control to complete a 35-run victory over the Pune Warriors in their Indian Premier League match at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on Friday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1377831

Gayle was once again batting on another planet as his sensational opening onslaught of 57 off 31 balls steered the Royal Challengers to 173 for three, which was always likely to be enough after Zaheer Khan and Vinay Kumar knocked off the cream of the Pune top-order.

Zaheer switched from over the wicket to around and immediately earned an lbw decision from umpire Billy Bowden against Mohnish Mishra (4) and, two balls later, the left-armer showed his wonderful skills with a delivery that pitched off and hit off to remove Manish Pandey for a duck.

Australian captain Michael Clarke is no doubt unaccustomed to being affiliated with such a struggling side as the basement-dwelling Pune Warriors and he confidently hit out, stroking a couple of boundaries in his 13 off 10 balls before his heave to leg off Vinay found the hands of Manoj Tiwary at deep midwicket.

Pune were 22 for three but Anustup Majumdar then linked up with Robin Uthappa to add 50 for the fourth wicket off just 28 balls.

But the dismissals of both batsmen – Uthappa was stumped by AB de Villiers off Muttiah Muralitharan for 38 off 23 balls and Majumdar was well-caught by Zaheer off Harshal Patel for 31 – left the Warriors in need of a miracle with 72 needed off 35 balls and just four wickets left.

Wicketkeeper De Villiers also claimed the scalp of Angelo Mathews (4), who charged down the pitch and played the worst shot of the match to be stumped off left-arm spinner KP Appanna.

At 105 for six after 15 overs, it was obvious that the Challengers would be victorious and the brilliant bowling of Muralitharan, Zaheer and Vinay ensured that the victory would be comprehensive, the eighth-biggest in terms of runs in this year’s IPL.

The experience and class of Zaheer (4-0-21-2) and Muralitharan (4-0-16-2) spearheaded the Bangalore attack, while Vinay finished with the impressive figures of three for 32.

Gayle’s belligerence had earlier taken Bangalore to 80 for one in the ninth over but, despite Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 53, the visitors faded away in the second half of their innings. Coach Ray Jennings is an independent thinker, but his continued refusal to bat De Villiers higher than number five is an outrage and a major topic of discussion.

De Villiers was left in the dugout until the 18th over and could face just four balls, scoring nine not out, before the end of the innings.

The Indian newspapers will once again be full of another spectacular innings by Gayle, who was ruthless from the outset, hitting the first and last balls of the third over bowled by Krishnakant Upadhyay for six.

The left-hander then had no pity on seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar as he belted him for four sixes in the sixth over, reaching his half-century off just 24 balls, the fastest in this year’s IPL.

But the impressive Mathews greatly limited the damage as he had Gayle caught at long-on, flat-batting a slower ball, and the Challengers finished with a total that was under expectations given their start.

Captain Virat Kohli under-performed again as he was caught off the leading edge at short-cover off leg-spinner Rahul Sharma for just nine and Dilshan eventually fell for 53 off 44 balls as he was run out, backing up too far, by the quick-thinking Alfonso Thomas.

The last three overs were the only section of the second half of the innings in which the Bangalore batsmen dominated as Saurabh Tiwary finally threatened the crowd with two fours and a six and De Villiers hit the last ball of the innings for six as well.

Tiwary scratched around without much purpose for most of his innings, finishing with 36 not out off 30 balls, which didn’t bother the home crowd much. He was also unable to rotate the strike effectively, which meant De Villiers was not able to face anything more than a handful of deliveries.

Mathews was a cut above the other Pune bowlers, removing Gayle in full flight and conceding just three runs in the 16th over as he finished with one for 14 in three overs.

Chris Gayle carried the Royal Challengers Bangalore without any alarms to a nine-wicket victory with two overs to spare over the Mumbai Indians in their IPL match at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120509/Gayle_wins_it_with_no_alarms

Mumbai were defending just 141 and Gayle and fellow opener Tillakaratne Dilshan quickly foiled any hopes they had of putting pressure on the Bangalore batting by adding 48 for the first wicket.

Gayle was content to see off dangerman Lasith Malinga, who bowled his first three overs for 10 runs, and made a patient start against the new ball on a pitch that offered assistance to the bowlers. The left-hander scored just two runs off his first 10 balls and went to 30 off 30 deliveries before exploding into action.

The West Indian finished with 82 not out off 59 balls, another fine effort by Gayle that took him to the top of the run-scorer’s list and the Orange Cap. Anything short or wide was punished mercilessly by Gayle, who was able to use brute force or tremendous skill to collect five fours and six sixes with consummate ease.

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha sparked Gayle’s rapid acceleration as he gave him plenty of material to work with in the 11th over, two full tosses being dispatched for six and the next ball being thumped over long-off to bring up his half-century off just 36 deliveries.

Dilshan’s 19 contained three fours as he contributed to the solid start, but the Sri Lankan was frustrated to be given out lbw sweeping at Ojha in the ninth over.

Virat Kohli looked back in good form as he helped Gayle finish the job as he went to a fluent 36 not out off 25 balls, hitting two balls into the crowd.

Malinga and off-spinner Harbhajan Singh were the Mumbai bowlers who put the ball in the right places most often, conceding 20 and 18 runs respectively in their four overs.

The overwhelming victory lifts Bangalore into the top four playoff places, after their bowlers had also dominated as they restricted the Mumbai Indians to 141 for six.

Having won the toss and elected to bowl first, Bangalore captain Kohli was rewarded by one of the better performances by the attack in the fifth season of the IPL.

The pace bowlers – Zaheer Khan (4-0-16-0), Vinay Kumar (4-0-34-2) and Harshal Patel (4-0-24-2) exploited the early moisture in the pitch and champion spinner Muttiah Muralitharan (4-0-24-2) then applied the finishing touches.

Vinay removed James Franklin (1) and Rohit Sharma (0) in the second over as Mumbai crashed to two for two and the first five overs were a real struggle for the home side, with Sachin Tendulkar failing to reproduce the form he showed in his last innings, when he blazed 74 off 44 balls against the Chennai Super Kings.

But Tendulkar reeled off three successive boundaries off Vinay in the sixth over, the million dollar man bowling repetitive half-volleys.

Tendulkar picked up one more boundary and reached 24 off 27 balls before he tried to pull Harshal from outside off stump and could only sky a return catch to the 21-year-old prospect.

Mumbai were 41 for three in the ninth over and floundering, but Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu consolidated with a stand of 44 in five-and-a-half overs, before Rayudu slapped Harshal to long-off to be dismissed for 22.

Karthik brought his usual clever adaptations to the crease in top-scoring for Mumbai with 44 off 39 balls, picking up three fours and a six, before an attempted slog-sweep was his undoing, the full length of Muralitharan preventing him from getting under the ball and presenting wide long-on with a comfortable catch.

The magic of Murali then claimed the important wicket of Dwayne Smith (2), the hero of Mumbai’s stunning win over Chennai at the weekend, with his next delivery, the West Indian slicing a doosra to point.

But there was another obvious dangerman still at the crease in Kieron Pollard (21*) and he hammered two sixes in the final over of the innings bowled by Vinay, sharing an unbroken stand of 41 in 4.1 overs with Harbhajan (20*).

David Hussey and Praveen Kumar proved their worth as bowlers in the shortest version of the game as they led the Punjab Kings XI to a 25-run victory over the Deccan Chargers in their Indian Premier League match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120508/Hussey_Praveen_prove_their_worth

Praveen takes swing bowling to new artistic levels and was rewarded with outstanding figures of 2-15 in four overs as the Chargers, chasing 171 for victory, struggled to 145 for eight.

Hussey, who has proven himself an independent thinker as captain standing in for the injured Adam Gilchrist, brought himself on to bowl the 11th over and changed the course of the match as he removed fellow Australians Daniel Harris (30) and powerful hitter Cameron White (8) and conceded just two runs in his only over.

Praveen made a top-class start with the new ball, conceding just six runs in two overs and claiming a vital wicket in Shikhar Dhawan (8), who edged a ball that nipped away to a wide slip.

Parthiv Patel came in and hit a four and a six off Parvinder Awana, but then picked the wrong ball to swish to leg and was bowled for 17.

Harris showed better selection in his 30 off 29 balls, notching two fours and a six, but he then failed to read off-spinner Hussey and sliced a delivery that went straight on to backward point.

White, whose recent form has given him prominent space in the newspapers, then heaved Hussey to cow corner, where another Aussie, Shaun Marsh, had plenty of time to contemplate the steepler before taking the catch.

Unfortunate Chargers captain Kumar Sangakkara (4) will be sorry he has such tremendous skill as he then managed to get an edge to an outrageous delivery from Praveen that would have beaten most batsmen all ends up. It swung sharply across the left-hander, hitting the bat near the shoulder and wicketkeeper Nitin Saini clung on to a great catch high to his left.

The Chargers were 75 for five after 12 overs and the Kings XI had no pity for Deccan as they limited them to 70 runs in the last eight overs and claimed three more wickets.

The lower-order was ill-equipped to tackle a required run-rate of 12 an over, unless the Kings XI suffered an extraodinary implosion in the field.

But the Punjab bowlers remained impressive till the end and the visitors were slick in the field as well. The Chargers were grateful for some late defiance from Akshath Reddy (24) and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (19) otherwise they probably would have suffered the ignominy of being bowled out inside 20 overs.

The Kings XI moved up to fifth in the IPL log and stated their playoff ambitions in no uncertain terms, with Awana (4-0-27-2) and the canny Azhar Mahmood (4-0-31-0) the other bowlers to shine.

BOLD INNINGS

Young Mandeep Singh had earlier come to the fore as he steered the Punjab Kings XI to 170 for five.

Newspapers the length of India will be raving about the 20-year-old Mandeep, who played a great hand on a tricky pitch, scoring 75 off 48 balls, with eight fours and three sixes.

Mandeep, one of the new wave of young Indian batsmen waiting to succeed the great current generation, was ruthless against anything a touch short and also played some beautiful drives as he gave the Kings XI a fine start after they were sent in to bat.

With Marsh scoring 22, Punjab had reached 86 for two at the halfway mark and lost their way a bit in the second half of their innings.

Part-time off-spinner Dhawan sent Marsh on his way in the seventh over as the Australian left-hander didn’t read the arm-ball, and one could only pity Saini (2), who received a poor lbw decision from umpire Kumar Dharmasena as he missed a googly from paceman Ashish Reddy.

Ashish bowls his slower ball out of the back of the hand, but unfortunately tends to overdo the delivery and was expensive as a result, conceding 39 runs in his four overs.

Captain Hussey scored a handy 16 before he gave a catch to long-off from the bowling of Veer Pratap Singh, but Mandeep continued with his adventurous, bold innings until the 16th over, when he got a bit excited lining up Ashish, missed a slower ball and was bowled.

As the end of innings neared, South Africans David Miller and Rusty Theron took centre stage.

Pietermaritzburg-raised Miller hit the ball high and handsome as he finished the innings with 28 not out off 18 balls, allowing Punjab to at least set Deccan a stiff target.

The batsmen had an uphill task scoring runs against Theron at the death, however, as the seamer kept them guessing with his array of variations accurately delivered.

Theron’s last two overs cost just 12 runs, leaving him with final figures of 4-0-29-0.

The loss of the dangerous Azhar, who had gone untroubled to 14 off nine balls, was another reason why Punjab missed out somewhat in the closing overs. The Pakistan all-rounder was run out after slick work by Ashish and bowler Theron, but the Chargers’ fielding was once again generally poor and something they desperately need to work on.

Off-spinner Jhunjhunwala (2-0-12-0) bowled tidily up front, but the Chargers were put on the back foot almost immediately as Veer conceded 18 runs in the second over.

Medium-pacer Harris also bowled a tight line in conceding just 15 runs in his two overs in the second half of the innings.