Match Review of Kolkatta Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab

Indian Premier League - Match review

Date : 30th April 2011 Match No. : 37th
Teams : Kolkatta Knight Riders vs Kings XI Punjab
Venue : Eden Garden, Kolkatta
Umpires : A. Saheba and S. Shastri Third Umpire: Rod Tucker
Toss : Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field

Playing XI King's XI Punjab	Playing XI Kolkatta Knight Riders
Adam Gilchrist (c)	Jacque Kallis
Shaun Marsh	Gautam Gambhir (c)
Paul Valthaty	Eoin Morgan
Dinesh Karthik	Manoj Tiwary
Praveen Kumar	Rajat Bhatia
Ryan Harris	Bret Lee
Abhishek Nayar	Yusuf Pathan
Piyush Chawla	RN ten Doeschate
David Hussy	L. Balaji
B. Sharma	I. Abdullah
B. A. Bhatt	S.P. Goswami

Eden Garden always brings joy and passion for any cricketer in the world, so was the case on Saturday. With over a capacity of 90,000, the stadium was jam packed. We can call it a star studded evening at the Gardens as Shahrukh Khan along with few other starts like Juhi Chawla, Priyanka Chopra & Sanjay Kapoor were present to cheer the home team.

After returning to winning ways with a hard fought success over the Daredevils, the Knight riders looked hungry for more. With few very close finishes, there has been a lot of criticism of their loosing the battles which could have been easily turned into victories. Their spirits were high as they were playing at their home ground.

On the other hand Kings XI Punjab lost their last match to Daredevils chasing a huge total of 232 runs. They fought hard but ended up losing marginally. Though Punjab is positioned at No. 6 on the points table, but we can not ignore the fact that they have played least number of matches (5).

The Knight Riders Captain, Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to field. When asked about his success as a captain, he rightly mentioned that there are no good or bad captains, it is the team that makes the difference.

Put into bat, the skipper Adam Gilchrist and Paul Valthaty came to open the innings. Valthaty, who has been the leading run scorer and a great hitter this season, failed to keep up to his reputation. He could manage only 7 runs in 8 balls. Punjab lost their 1st wicket on 32 in 4.3 overs. After Valthaty's departure, another in-form batsman, Shaun Marsh, walked to the crease. The run rate was not an issue at this stage as they were scoring over 7. The only thing they needed was some sensible batting.

By now, the Knight Riders captain realized that it's a dry track. He removed his pace attack and introduced spin. Iqbal Abdulla, who bowled outstandingly well against the Daredevils was brought in. Marsh was on the strike facing Abdulla when there was a very confident appeal for LBW which was turned down by the umpire. But in all this confusion, Marsh missed out on the 'call for a single' from Gilchrist and got run out in the process. Two very crucial wickets down for 40 runs in 5.6 overs.

Dinesh Karthik, an ex-Daredevil who is known for being an anchor rather than hitter, was the next batsman in. Before he could understand the pitch conditions and join hands with skipper, the latter was clean bold by a beauty from Abdulla. Gilchrist contributed 26 runs to the total. With a new batsman coming in every alternate over, the King's XI kept losing the run-rate. Kings XI never got going in the 1st half and were struggling at 53 for four.

Dinesh Karthik tried to build partnership with David Hussy but later got out lbw by Abdullah on the individual score of just 15 runs. As it was day of run outs and another was gifted to Kolkatta and this was the wicket of best looking Karthik on his individual score of 42. Punjab in the end could only manage a total of 119 runs which was always a low total in front of mighty Knights. Everything happened as scripted for the Knight Riders Jacque Kallis and English southpaw Eoin Morgan opened the batting for Knight Riders. But it seems Kallis could only contribute with his excellent fielding but not in the batting. He got out cheaply on the score of 1 only. On the other end Morgan who was deliberately moved up the order to strengthen the opening batting proved the decision right and impressed all with his good looking shots all over. He hit 6 boundaries in his total of 28 in 15 balls. Morgan got out on the stunning catch by Ryan Harris on Bhatt's bowling, which was awarded �The Karbonn Kamaal catch of the Match'.

The crowd would have been a bit concerned with the home team loosing 2 quick wickets at a score of 35. Though, they were not chasing a huge total, but things can change any minute in this format of cricket.

Skipper Gautam Gambhir and the Manoj Tiwary were at the crease. Tiwari, the man of the match from the last match against the Daredevils, looked very confident. Both built an unbeaten partnership of 58 runs. With this pair batting in, the target looked like a cakewalk for the hosts. Gambhir was determined to finish things on his own rather than leaving it to following team mates. Gautam & Tiwari remained unbeaten scoring 44 & 34 runs respectively.

Result: Kolkatta Knight Riders won by 8 wickets with 16 balls to spare.

The Awards: Man of the match:
I. Abdullah for excellent bowling spell of 2 wickets for 19 runs.

Maximum Sixes:
Manoj Tiwary

Kingfisher Fair Play Award Chennai Super Kings tops the chart & Knight Riders at the bottom.

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virat Kohli- Royal Challengers Bangalore

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day: Is IPL affecting Bollywood big time?



Last Updated on 5/2/2011