Ken Borland

The Kolkata Knight Riders were cheering the outstanding death bowling of Jacques Kallis as he led them to an 18-run victory over the Delhi Daredevils and a place in the Indian Premier League final after their qualifier at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune on Tuesday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120522/KKR_waltz_into_IPL_final

After batting well to score 30, Kallis sunk Delhi’s hopes as he conceded just 11 runs from the 17th and 19th overs and claimed the key wickets of Venugopal Rao and Ross Taylor. The Daredevils were most definitely in the game before the South African’s return to the attack, needing 46 runs from the last four overs, with six wickets in hand.

But Kallis, no doubt delighted to be bowling on a pitch that was not the usual low-bouncing track found in India, used the short ball superbly and bowled with pace as he finished with two for 24 in four overs.

Delhi were chasing 163 but lost big-hitting openers David Warner (7) – to a very mediocre decision by umpire Billy Doctrove – and Virender Sehwag (10), both caught behind by Brendon McCullum off successive deliveries from Shakib Al Hasan and Lakshmipathy Balaji.

So the Daredevils needed to rebuild, and Naman Ojha and Mahela Jayawardene brought Delhi back into a position from which they could win the game as they reached 83 for two after 10 overs, needing just 80 more to win.

Jayawardene was playing a masterful innings, knowing exactly where to place the ball, as he went to 39 off 33 balls, with six sublime boundaries.

Ojha scored a run-a-ball 29 before he cut a short delivery from medium-pacer Rajat Bhatia straight to backward point to give Kolkata a vital breakthrough in the 11th over.

Four overs later, McCullum managed to stump Jayawardene on the second attempt as the Sri Lankan came down the pitch to left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla, but was beaten by a quicker, flatter delivery that was fired into his pads.

Tomes have already been written about Kallis’s prowess with the bat, but on Tuesday he showed his brilliance with the ball. The 36-year-old so seldom errs in his reading of conditions and he dug the ball in to menacing effect.

Venugopal and Pawan Negi were surprisingly sent up the order when the Daredevils’ batting line-up houses a destructive, experienced hitter in Taylor, and the two Indians produced stodgy innings.

It was always a safe bet that Venugopal, flapping erratically at short balls on his way to 13 off 22 balls, would eventually run out of luck and he was all at sea against another Kallis lifter on the penultimate delivery of the 17th over, splicing a catch into the covers.

Taylor, completely wasted at No 7 in the order, then clipped Kallis firmly off his legs but straight to deep square-leg to fall for 11 off eight balls.

When Kallis finished his spell, Delhi were on 137 for six and needing 26 off the last over, but mystery spinner Sunil Narine easily accounted for Negi (14) and Morne Morkel (0).

The Daredevils finished on 144 for eight and the Kolkata Knight Riders had sealed their first appearance in an IPL final.

LATE BOOST

Yusuf Pathan provided the Kolkata Knight Riders innings with a late boost as they posted 162 for four after electing to bat first.

Pathan, who has had a woeful IPL, hammered 40 not out off just 21 balls as the Knight Riders reached a challenging total on a pitch that offered turn and some assistance for the pace bowlers.

The Knight Riders’ top-order struggled to break the shackles of tight fielding and tidy bowling by Delhi, with Gautam Gambhir, McCullum and Kallis all getting set before getting out as Kolkata struggled to 106 for four after 16 overs.

Left-arm spinner Negi was the Delhi bowler who kept the tightest rein on the run-scoring, taking one for 18 in four excellent overs.

Kolkata openers Gambhir and McCullum successfully negotiated the impressive opening burst from Morkel, and Gambhir was humming along splendidly as he raced to 32 off 16 balls.

But McCullum then drove Varun Aaron firmly to mid-off and Gambhir came too far down the pitch, Venugopal scoring a direct hit, which the third umpire ruled had just beaten the Indian star’s effort to get back to his crease.

McCullum was just starting to show some promising signs of blossoming as he went to 31 off 36 balls, but he then sliced a drive off Negi to point.

Kallis scored 30 off 33 balls before he picked out the man at deep midwicket with a wonderfully-struck short-arm pull off Umesh Yadav.

That left the Knight Riders in an awkward position with just four overs remaining, but Pathan hammered three fours and two sixes with the ferocity of an orc, while Laxmi Ratan Shukla set about the bowlers from the start of his innings in a scintillating 24 not out off 11 balls.

Pathan and Shukla added 56 for the fifth wicket off just 24 balls to leave Delhi chasing a testing target against the best spin-based attack in the competition. The pair took 21 runs off the last over of the innings, bowled by Aaron.

The Daredevils’ decision to use just one spinner in Negi backfired, with the South African, Roelof van der Merwe, left on the sidelines as the fast bowlers – Yadav (4-0-37-1), Morkel (4-0-37-0) and Aaron (4-0-48-0) – all leaked the runs at an alarming rate.

Irfan Pathan, the left-armer, was the one pace bowler to impress, conceding just 20 runs in the four-over quota while claiming the wicket of Shakib for a single.

Delhi will now play the winners of the eliminator between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings to decide the other finalist.

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.

Another giant bowling performance by Lasith Malinga at the death led the Mumbai Indians to a thrilling one-run victory over the Pune Warriors in their Indian Premier League match at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on Thursday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120503/Mumbai_win_thanks_to_Malinga

Pune were chasing just 121 for victory and the gutsy Mithun Manhas took them to the brink against the powerful Mumbai attack that produced a massive effort to make up for their batsmen’s failings.

Manhas scored 42 not off 34 balls and was particularly strong square on the off side. But he was unable to produce the boundary-hits required through the leg-side and, with Mumbai captain Harbhajan Singh putting a tight screen on the off-side, Manhas did not score another boundary after the first ball of the 18th over and in fact scored just seven runs off his last seven balls.

Malinga finished with 2-25 in four overs and, with Pune needing 36 runs in the last four overs, the Sri Lankan star took 2-13 in his last two overs.

The Slinga began by bowling Saurav Ganguly, who was in scratchy form, for 16 and then out-thought Wayne Parnell (2) with full, wide deliveries that eventually led to the left-hander steering a catch into the hands of Robin Peterson at backward-point.

After Malinga’s brilliance, Pune needed 12 off Munaf Patel’s last over and Bhuvneswar Kumar put them in with a chance by hitting the Indian seamer inside-out over extra cover for four. It left the Warriors needing four runs off the last ball for victory but, despite Munaf producing a low full-toss on leg-stump, Bhuvneswar could only flick it to deep midwicket for two runs.

The Pune home crowd had spent most of the innings in stunned disbelief as a very average batting performance meant they made extremely heavy weather of chasing a mediocre total.

Opener Robin Uthappa had played some wonderful drives in his 18 before the aggressive Munaf trapped him lbw and the miserly Harbhajan then removed Jesse Ryder (9) and the fluent Australian captain Michael Clarke (14).

Clarke had shown some great footwork to the crafty off-spinner and his lbw decision, sweeping after getting in a good stride, looked a particularly harsh decision, especially with Harbhajan bowling around the wicket.

AWFUL COLLAPSE

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha then used his skill to rush an arm-ball through the advancing Steve Smith (2) and James Franklin showed his utility value with a valuable spell of three overs for 20 runs.

The powerhouse Mumbai attack, led by Malinga, then finished the job despite Manhas’s brave efforts to go after the required runs.

The spin of Harbhajan (4-0-18-2) and Ojha (4-0-24-1) was crucial in maintaining the pressure on the Warriors, while Munaf bowled splendidly with the new ball and in the crucial final over to also finish with 1-24.

The Pune Warriors seamers had earlier bowled with pace and intensity as they restricted the Mumbai Indians to 120 for nine.

Bhuvneshwar was the star of the show with figures of 2-9 in three overs, while Ashish Nehra recovered brilliantly from his first over costing 14 runs to finish with 2-19.

Sachin Tendulkar top-scored with 34, but his innings took 35 balls and his frustration was apparent as his mediocre IPL continued. It was his highest score of the season and it took his tally to just 128 runs in six innings.

All eyes were on Tendulkar as he took three successive fours off Ashok Dinda in the fourth over, but Nehra’s tight line proved his undoing as The Little Master was caught behind in the 12th over.

Tendulkar had glued the top-order together after the loss of Franklin, caught off Bhuvneshwar for 25, and Rohit Sharma, run out by Smith for three, in the first half of the innings, but his departure led to an awful collapse as Mumbai lost six wickets for 39 runs in the last eight overs.

Peterson, strangely promoted up the order to number four, scored 13 before he skied a pull off Nehra to mid-on, while Ambati Rayudu made room to slash through the off-side but was totally deceived and bowled by a slower ball rolled out by Bhuvneshwar.

Dinesh Karthik was left to bat with the tail and struggled through to the end of the innings to score 18 not out, with the visitors’ appalling running between the wickets leading to the downfall of Thisara Perera (0), Malinga (14) and Ojha (1).

Smith, one of the best fielders in the competition, was involved in two more of the run outs, while Parnell bowled superbly in the death overs to concede just 18 runs in his four overs.

Parnell was also excellent in the field, snatching a great catch at short extra cover to dismiss the Mumbai captain, Harbhajan, for a first-ball duck off the bowling of Dinda.

The Pune Warriors ran into Virender Sehwag at his best, losing their Indian Premier League match against the Delhi Daredevils by eight wickets at their Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on Tuesday.

– http://www.supersport.com/cricket/indian-premier-league/news/120424/Pune_lose_to_Sehwag_scorcher

Sehwag was in hot form, hammering 87 not out off just 48 balls, his scorching strokeplay bringing him 10 fours and three sixes as Delhi cantered to their target of 147 with four overs to spare.

The Indian opener showed once again why he is such a class act, timing and placing the ball magnificently and working the bowlers with great skill through the on-side and being as ruthless as ever when he was given space outside off stump.

Sehwag laughed off his involvement in an awful mix-up with Mahela Jayawardena, who was run out for 18 when Luke Wright suddenly emerged from behind the square-leg umpire and fired in a quick throw to wicketkeeper Robin Uthappa.

The Daredevils were 22 for one in the third over, but Sehwag and Kevin Pietersen quickly banished any hopes Pune had of securing their second victory over Delhi as they added 89 for the second wicket in 8.2 overs.

Pietersen scored a comfortable 27 off 21 balls before he skied a drive off leg-spinner Rahul Sharma, but Sehwag stayed through to the end in a top-class innings, flatbatting Rahul for a straight six to end the match.

Rahul finished his four overs with 1-33 but, although none of the other Pune bowlers could take a wicket, South African seamer Alfonso Thomas (2-0-14-0) and left-arm spinner Murali Kartik (4-0-26-0) were economical.

It was not a good evening though for left-arm paceman Ashish Nehra (3-0-34-0) nor seamer Wright (2-0-24-0).

The Pune Warriors recovered to 146 for two because of a brilliant century stand between Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa.

Pandey and Uthappa added 120 for the third wicket off 112 balls, finishing not out on 80 and 60 respectively. They’re both experienced IPL campaigners, so they didn’t let the shock of Pune being reduced to one for two in the second over get to them as they sensibly built a partnership before lashing out in the closing overs.

It was not the best performance in the field by the Delhi Daredevils as Pandey was dropped three times, Pietersen missing a sitter at long-on off Pawan Negi on 20, and Shahbaz Nadeem and Negi dropping return catches on 44 and 56. Their ground fielding was also not faultless.

Pandey used beautifully-timed, classical strokes with a straight bat, plus some innovation, to strike seven fours and three sixes in his fine innings of 80 not out off 56 balls.

Uthappa played within himself, allowing Pandey to accelerate, but his 60 not out off 58 balls included six fours and was a great supporting act.

The Warriors had elected to bat first, but made a disastrous start as Irfan Pathan’s second ball kept low to bowl Jesse Ryder for a duck and Saurav Ganguly (1) sliced Morne Morkel’s second ball to third man.

Morkel finished with 1-34 in his four overs, but Pathan, with one for 24, and left-arm spinners Negi and Nadeem, who each conceded just 22 runs in their four overs, did the most to restrict Pandey and Uthappa.