Ken Borland

The mysterious skills of spinner Sunil Narine decided the outcome as the Kolkata Knight Riders snatched an extraordinary 32-run victory over the Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.

 – http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1384311

The victory means the Knight Riders join the Delhi Daredevils as the only two teams that are through to the playoffs and, defending just 141, it was thanks to the brilliant efforts of their bowlers in making the ball talk on a helpful surface.

Narine led the way with four for 15 in 3.1 overs and the West Indian is so mysterious that, in a bygone age, his dominance would have been churlishly attributed to ball-tampering, throwing or some other dark art.

With a required run-rate of just 7.05 runs per over, Mumbai were obvious favourites as the experienced duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Herschelle Gibbs strode out to begin the run-chase.

But the tight bowling of seamer Lakshmipathy Balaji up front and the spin trio of Shakib al-Hasan, Narine and Iqbal Abdulla, the latter snaring the wicket of Gibbs, trapped lbw for 13, saw the required rate jump to over eight an over after just a handful of overs.

Tendulkar was happy to just accumulate ones and twos until the ninth over, when he punished Jacques Kallis for a six and a four.

But the glory of dismissing and thoroughly baffling Tendulkar went to Narine as he bowled him for 27 at the end of the 11th over, a fizzing off-break seemingly taking a bit of hand, bat and thigh on its way on to the stumps.

From then on it was like David’s battle against Goliath – except the underdogs didn’t get the divine intervention they needed – as Mumbai required 81 runs off the last nine overs.

Dinesh Karthik scored 21 off 26 balls before his pull shot off Balaji was perfectly placed for Yusuf Pathan to take the catch on the fine leg boundary.

Ambati Rayudu hit left-arm spinner Abdulla out of the park in the 14th over but was then stumped by Brendon McCullum for 11 when he tried to repeat the stroke against the other left-arm spinner in the Kolkata line-up, Bangladesh star Shakib al-Hasan.

Kallis then went to town in the 17th over, proving his all-round worth after a first-ball duck with the bat as he deceived Kieron Pollard (8) with a slower bouncer and then trapped Dwayne Smith lbw with the next delivery for a Caribbean double.

Any semblance of hope then disappeared for Mumbai as Harbhajan Singh, not knowing if Narine’s delivery was spinning in or turning away from him, skied a big hit to long-on.

Narine then spun out Rohit Sharma for 12, McCullum bounding out from behind the stumps to take the catch, and the 23-year-old then wrapped up the win by dismissing Rudra Pratap Singh for three with the first ball of the 20th over, earning himself the Purple Cap in the process.

The Kolkata bowlers would obviously like to put the Mumbai pitch in a box and carry it around India with them because they all thrived.

Apart from Narine, Balaji ended with terrific figures of two for 11 in four overs, Shakib produced a fine performance with one for 25, Abdulla showed his talent with one for 23 and Kallis did the wicket-taking job required of him with two for 32.

The Kolkata Knight Riders had earlier left their supporters cursing what seemed to be a mediocre batting performance as they struggled to 140 for seven.

Many tomes have been written about Kallis, but he was one of the Knight Riders batsmen to fail as he was bowled through the gate by Rudra for a first-ball duck.

In the South African’s defence, however, he errs so seldom and it was a cracking delivery from the left-arm seamer that nipped back off the seam, against the natural angle across the right-hander.

It was a disastrous start for Kolkata after Mumbai captain Harbhajan seemingly made the right decision at the toss and sent them in, McCullum having suffered an awful lbw decision from Subroto Das off the previous delivery from Rudra.

McCullum was well down the pitch, the ball pitched outside leg stump and probably would have gone over or outside off stump, but Subroto sent him on his way for a single.

Captain Gautam Gambhir (27) and Manoj Tiwary (41) brought some respite with a third-wicket stand of 38 in seven overs, but the accurate Mumbai seamers allowed them little leeway.

The Knight Riders had limped to 54 for three at the halfway mark, which finally brought out the strokemaker in Tiwary as he hit two fours and two sixes before falling to the superb Munaf Patel in the 15th over.

The lower-order did come to the party, with Shakib (13), Yusuf Pathan (21*) and Rajat Bhatia (12) all upping the run-rate, while Narine hit two fours off the first four balls he faced at the death.

The Mumbai bowlers held sway, however, with Munaf the best of the bunch with the brilliant figures of one for 17 in four overs.

Rudra finished with two for 33, while Lasith Malinga was unusually in the background as he took one for 32. The medium-pace of the West Indian duo of Pollard (3-0-20-1) and Smith (2-0-8-1) was also impressive on the helpful Wankhede pitch.

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*).

The Pune Warriors bowlers were able to break through regularly as they limited the Mumbai Indians to 100 for nine to clinch a 29-run victory in their Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday.

– http://www.supersport.com/cricket/article.aspx?id=1329151

It was a shock victory for the Warriors, who finished last in their debut IPL season last year and were playing away from home at the daunting stadium of one of the tournament favourites, and especially since they were only defending 130.

But the Mumbai Indians were in trouble immediately as new T20 sensation Richard Levi was stumped by Robin Uthappa for a duck off the second ball of the innings bowled by left-arm spinner Murali Kartik.

Ashok Dinda then opened the bowling from the Garware Pavilion End and produced a performance to rival that of Mumbai Indians’ star Lasith Malinga.

Dinda produced a double-wicket strike in his first over, having Ambati Rayadu caught at slip and then having Rohit Sharma caught behind by Uthappa, both for singles.

Mumbai were five for three before James Franklin and Dinesh Karthik added 49 for the fourth wicket to stabilise the innings. But the required surge of runs never came, although an exciting ending still looked likely as the home side reached 48 for three after 10 overs.

But the Pune spinners tightened their grip to strangulation point, with Karthik (32) surprised by a quicker, big-turning delivery from Kartik and being stumped by Uthappa.

Debutant Suryakumar Yadav was then bowled for a duck by a fizzing arm-ball from off-spinner Marlon Samuels and Kieron Pollard (8) was bowled by a similar quicker delivery by leg-spinner Rahul Sharma.

The big-hitting Pollard had been left with too much to do by Franklin, who tried none of the big hits required in the closing stages of a T20 match when more than 10 runs an over are required.

It’s fitting that when Franklin did finally try and hit out, in the 18th over, the bat went flying from his hands and the ball was skied to Callum Ferguson at long-on to give Dinda his third wicket. The New Zealander initially did a good job for his team, but it was heartbreaking for the home crowd to see him pushing singles when so much more was required. Franklin finished with 32 off 42 balls and his dismissal ended Mumbai’s hopes.

Pune captain Saurav Ganguly said at the toss that he expected the pitch to turn more in the second innings, and his trio of spinners produced a top-class performance to back up a canny display of leadership in the field.

While seamer Dinda finished with a phenomenal 4-17 in four overs, it was the pressure exerted by the spinners that helped him to his success.

The merry tunes played by Kartik (3-0-14-2), Rahul (4-0-16-1) and Samuels (4-0-21-1) would see the Mumbai batsmen spellbound and frustrated as Pune pulled off an impressive mugging at a packed Wankhede Stadium.

South African left-armer Wayne Parnell bowled a couple of top-class deliveries as he finished with a creditable 1-18 in three overs, claiming a late wicket when he had Malinga caught behind by a slick Uthappa for five.

The fact that none of the Pune bowlers conceded more than 6.5 runs per over told the story as the Mumbai Indians showed the fragility of their batting line-up without the injured and talismanic Sachin Tendulkar, who has not recovered from the finger injury suffered in the opening game.

IPL’S LEADING WICKET-TAKER

Malinga had earlier become the leading wicket-taker in IPL history as the powerful Mumbai Indians attack restricted the Pune Warriors to just 129 for nine.

Malinga, the Sri Lankan star, led the way with outstanding figures of 2-16 in his four overs – the first runs scored by a batsman off his bowling came after 11 balls.

The unorthodox slinger now has 65 wickets in 44 matches, overtaking Rudra Pratap Singh’s 64 wickets in 56 games.

Malinga was magnificent up front after the Mumbai Indians had decided to bowl first, bowling Manish Pandey for a duck in a wicket-maiden first over and then conceding just three runs in his second over. The 28-year-old returned in the 17th over with almost the same effectiveness.

Despite the slog being on, he conceded just 13 runs in his last two overs and bowled the dangerous Samuels for four with another trademark swinging yorker.

With off-spinner Harbhajan Singh sharing the new ball and doing a great job as well, the Pune batsmen were feeling their way from the start and Uthappa (36 off 33 balls) and Steven Smith (39 off 32) were the only ones to bat with any authority.

Paceman Munaf Patel also produced a top-class display as he took 2-26 in four overs, nipping a delivery back into Parnell (11) and bowling the South African left-hander, and then having Smith caught off a slower ball in a marvellous final over that cost just five runs.

Mumbai captain Harbhajan was also impressive with 1-16 in three overs, dismissing opposite number Ganguly (3).

Left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha would come on later and also do a great job, taking 1-23 in four overs and turning the ball sharply.