Ken Borland

The Deccan Chargers suffered another blow as the Kolkata Knight Riders beat them by five wickets in their Indian Premier League match at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Sunday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1351481

It was a struggle for the Knight Riders, however, as they needed 19 overs to chase down their mediocre target of 127.

It was mainly thanks to their bowlers and fielders, who operated as a slick unit in restricting the Deccan Chargers to 126 for seven, that the Kolkata Knight Riders claimed victory.

The Chargers, having been sent in to bat after an hour-long rain delay, made a bright enough start as they reached 35 without loss after five overs. But they then seemed to bat well within themselves and the whole innings came to a near standstill as the Kolkata bowlers and fielders tightened their strangulating grip.

The Knight Riders bowling system worked a charm with all-rounders Yusuf Pathan (2-0-19-0) and Jacques Kallis (2-0-16-0) getting their combined share of overs out the way early. Brett Lee (4-0-15-1) bowled tightly up front and then brilliantly at the death, while spinner Sunil Narine (4-0-26-2) was just an absolute handful throughout. Medium-pacers Lakshmipathy Balaji (4-0-22-2) and Rajat Bhatia (4-0-26-1) bossed the non-powerplay overs.

Balaji showed that he is no mug with the ball as he cleaned up the great Kumar Sangakkara, bowling him middle stump for 12, but Shikhar Dhawan made a brisk start as he and Parthiv Patel added 44 in 5.4 overs for the second wicket.

Parthiv was run out for 23 by a top-class piece of boundary fielding by Kallis, while Dhawan lost momentum and completed a battling half-century before he pulled a full toss from Bhatia straight to cow-corner to be out for 50 off 50 balls.

Dhawan’s dismissal meant the Chargers had slipped to 102 for four after 16 overs and they managed to add just 24 more runs in the last four overs, including just a four and a six. In fact, the whole innings featured just nine fours and two sixes.

VERBAL JOUSTING

JP Duminy ensured that Deccan weren’t bowled out within the 20 overs as he finished on 16 not out off 15 balls, while Dale Steyn scored seven, that included a lovely straight six off Narine off the first ball of the final over.

The Barabati Stadium pitch is clearly not the easiest to bat on and, with Steyn, the most lethal fast bowler in the world, taking the new ball, the Chargers wanted early wickets to have a chance.

New Zealander Brendon McCullum is always a threat and Steyn claimed his wicket after he had scored 10, trapping him lbw with a slower ball that kept low.

Fellow opener Gautam Gambhir made a fluent 30 before his innings had a sad end as he lamely drove seamer Anand Rajan straight to mid-off.

Leggie Amit Mishra accounted for Maninder Bisla (10), bowling him with a beautiful top-spinner and there was more disappointment for the misfiring Yusuf Pathan as he hit impressive slow left-armer Ankit Sharma (4-0-19-1) for a massive six but then missed a swipe at the next delivery and was bowled.

Kallis, however, played an important innings for the Knight Riders, scoring a composed 23 at a run-a-ball to lift them from 72 for four.

Steyn, the best of the Deccan bowlers with 2-24, won the personal battle with countryman Kallis as he had him caught behind with a fine delivery in the 17th over, and there were a few anxious moments thereafter for the Knight Riders as Manoj Tiwary allowed the situation to get to him.

Tiwary was nearly run out as he wandered down the pitch to engage in some verbal jousting with Steyn, and the choice of some of his strokes left a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, he finished the job with his 30 not out as the Knight Riders joined the other leaders on eight points.

The Rajasthan Royals attack called the tune as they dismissed the Kolkata Knight Riders for 142 to win their Indian Premier League match by 22 runs at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday.

– http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120408/Rajasthan_Royals_bowlers_do_the_job

The Knight Riders were chasing 165 for victory, but a top-class opening burst by seamer Amit Singh and left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan saw them lose three wickets off three balls.

At eight for three in the third over, Kolkata were looking like fish out of water and, despite a classy, defiant half-century from Manoj Tiwary and a late onslaught from Brett Lee, the victory was a most comfortable one for the Royals.

Jacques Kallis (5) was the first to fall, driving a slower ball from Amit straight to deep mid-off. The 30-year-old followed up the wicket of South Africa’s greatest batsman by having Indian star Gautam Gambhir caught behind for a duck off the next delivery.

Brendon McCullum (2) then seemed oblivious to the crisis as he walked across his stumps to the first ball of the next over and was trapped lbw by Chavan.

The Rajasthan team needed to use just five bowlers as the Knight Riders continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.

Yusuf Pathan briefly threatened as he scored 15, but the big-hitting Gujarati is frustratingly inconsistent and he skied Siddharth Trivedi to midwicket to leave Kolkata on 66 for five in the 11th over.

Lee is a dangerous striker of the ball and he hammered a pair of fours and sixes in his 25 off 11 balls before being bowled by a good slower ball from Kevon Cooper.

Tiwary finished with 59 off 49 balls, with seven fours, but it was not enough to prevent the Knight Riders from being bowled out in the final over.

Chavan took 2-23 and Amit 2-30 to set the early tone, while Trivedi claimed 2-25 to undermine the middle-order.

Cooper then grabbed 3-28 to earn himself the Purple Cap for the leading wicket-taker, while South African Johan Botha eventually bowled Tiwary to end the innings and finish with 1-34.

Brad Hodge and Ashok Menaria were the inspiration earlier with the bat as the Rajasthan Royals posted 164 for five.

Rajasthan had been sent in to bat and were hampered by both their openers being run out as they reached 62 for three after nine overs, before Menaria scored 40 off 30 balls and Hodge 44 off 29 deliveries as they shared a fourth-wicket stand of 64 in 7.3 overs.

Ajinkya Rahane, the hero of Rajasthan’s comprehensive opening win over the Punjab Kings XI, surrendered his wicket in the second over when he was run out by Gambhir for a duck, before Rahul Dravid and Shreevats Goswami added 43 for the second wicket in five overs.

Their stand was ended, however, by Dravid’s run out, by Iqbal Abdulla, for 26 and Rajat Bhatia, their most economical bowler, then struck a major blow for the Knight Riders as he bowled Goswami for 23.

Menaria and Hodge owned the middle overs, however, giving the Royals a competitive total in the process.

Hodge was content to set off at his own pace, scoring at a run-a-ball for his first 13 deliveries, before getting stuck into off-spinner Pathan in the 14th over.

The Australian cooked up two sixes and a four in the over of pies and the run-rate continued to rise as he smashed Kallis for successive boundaries in the next over.

Hodge eventually fell trying to scoop compatriot Lee and being caught behind, but Englishman Owais Shah immediately got down to business, facing two balls before hitting two fours and a six off his next four deliveries.

Lee bowled Menaria in an eventful penultimate over that also included a six and a four by Shah, as well as a no-ball that just cost two more runs off the free hit by the Western Cape Cobras batsman.

The Kolkata bowlers stuck to their game plans well, with Lee taking 2-29 and spinners Sunil Narine, the IPL rookie from the West Indies, (4-0-29-0) and Bhatia (4-0-27-1) systematically stifling the batsmen.

Morne Morkel continued his wonderful form with the ball as he set up the Delhi Daredevils’ eight-wicket win over the Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL match at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Thursday.

– http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1328391

The strike bowler, one of four South Africans in action in the match, took 3-18 as Kolkata, who were sent in to bat, were restricted to 97 for nine in their 12 overs in a rain-reduced match.

Morkel’s batsmen then made slightly heavy weather of the chase and it needed new-ball bowler Irfan Pathan’s 42 not out off just 20 balls to see Delhi home with five balls remaining.

After captain Virender Sehwag was well-caught by Iqbal Abdulla, running around the long-on boundary, off Rajat Bhatia for 20 off 13 balls, the Daredevils were 57 for two in the eighth over, needing 41 off 28 balls.

Medium-pacer Bhatia finished the over well and Delhi needed 39 off the last four overs, with Irfan having faced just four balls.

But he hit Jacques Kallis for six in the next over and then he hammered Marchant de Lange for two more sixes in the 10th over to get the required run-rate down to less than a run-a-ball.

It was surprising that Kolkata captain Gautam Gambhir decided to bowl the inexperienced De Lange in the 11th over, the rookie South African conceding 17 runs as he bowled too short to Irfan, with the vastly-experienced Brett Lee still having an over left.

Aaron Finch scored 30 to ensure the Daredevils were off to a solid start, before Kallis (3-0-23-1) bowled a precise cutter to bowl the Australian.

De Lange had done much to ruffle the batsmen with some fiery bowling but Irfan was able to take his team home.

BRILLIANT YORKERS

Delhi Daredevils fast bowlers Morkel and Umesh Yadav had earlier crippled the Kolkata Knight Riders innings as they restricted them to 97 for nine in their 12 overs.

Morkel set the tone for the Daredevils’ dominance as he bowled Kallis (4) and Manoj Tiwary (0) with brilliant yorkers off successive deliveries on his way to superb figures of three for 18 in his three overs.

The South African giant had an impressive supporter in Indian star Yadav, who took two for nine in two overs, conceding just three runs in the penultimate over and claiming the wicket of top-scorer Laxmi Shukla for 26.

The match was played over 12-overs-a-side after a rain delay of two-and-a-half hours in Kolkata and, after being sent in to bat, the Knight Riders were quickly in trouble as Morkel and Roelof van der Merwe, his teammate at the Titans, reduced them to 20 for three after three overs.

Left-arm spinner Van der Merwe trapped Brendon McCullum lbw for nine before Morkel’s double-strike. Things only got worse for the Knight Riders as Yadav, who is not short of pace, had Yusuf Pathan caught behind for a duck as he got himself into a tangle against a short-pitched delivery.

Morkel, who took 6-23 in national colours in his last outing, then returned to bowl Indian star Gambhir, who failed to handle the extra bounce and chopped on, for 16.

Kolkata were 54 for five, but the Daredevils were guilty of taking their foot off the throat a bit as Debabrata Das was dropped on two and Shukla was able to hammer a four and two sixes.

Das scored 18 off nine balls and Shukla 26 off 17 but not even their efforts could save Kolkata from a half-baked innings.

Excellent bowling at the death by Yadav and Van der Merwe ensured that the Knight Riders’ run-rate never rose to any great extent, despite some lusty blows by Das and Shukla.

Morkel was obviously the best of the Delhi bowlers, but the efforts of Yadav and Van der Merwe (two for 28) were also of great value.