night Riders back to winning ways

Rain-affected game goes to the wire; Royal Challengers suffers another defeat.

Kolkata: It was so close yet so far for the Royal Challengers Bangalore against Kolkata Knight Riders in the DLF Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament at the Eden Gardens. In the end, the Rahul Dravid-led Challengers lost by five runs in a rain-reduced game here giving a new lease of life to Sourav Ganguly-captained Knight Riders.

Set a victory target of 130 to get in 16 overs, Royal Challengers took up the task in right earnest and almost made it. Needing to score 19 runs off the last over bowled by Ishant Sharma, the Bangalore outfit, helped by a superb unbeaten half century by Mark Boucher, could score only 13 runs.

Fielding gave the home side the edge. A splendid three-over spell by Ganguly for a miserly seven runs in the middle overs also put the brakes on the Royal Challengers’ run chase. Amidst mounting tension, Boucher (50, 40b, 5x4, 1x6) and Cameron White (30, 16b, 3x4, 1x6) added an invaluable 45 runs for the fourth wicket and threatened to take the match away.

Lucky break

But luck was with Knight Riders as White was run out in the penultimate over bowled by Murali Kartik and thereafter, although the two unbeaten batsmen Boucher and Praveen Kumar played some bold strokes, they failed to take the team home.

Only J. Arunkumar, one of the four changes in the side, got into double figures (22, 17b, 5x4). The failure of Shivnarine Chanderpaul (7) and Rahul Dravid (5) did not help the team’s cause.

Tough task

The loss, sixth in eight matches, has made the task of reaching the semifinals rather difficult for Royal Challengers. Dravid said after the match that his team would “have to win all the remaining matches to stay in the competition.”

The win propelled Knight Riders to fifth position in the league table with three wins and four defeats to be on six points. Man of the Match Ganguly credited the team’s victory to keen fielding. “This victory will give us back the momentum to go further in this tournament,” he said.

The scores: Kolkata Knight Riders: A. Chopra lbw b Steyn 2, B. Hodge c V. Kumar b Khan 10, S. Ganguly (run out) 20, D. Hussey (run out) 26, T. Taibu c Boucher b Steyn 15, L.R. Shukla b Steyn 11, W. Saha (not out) 17, M. Kartik c & b P. Kumar 17, U. Gul (not out) 6; Extras (lb-3, w-2): 5; Total (for seven wkts. in 16 overs): 129.

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-20, 3-46, 4-64, 5-80, 6-88, 7-122.

Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling: Steyn 4-0-27-3, Zaheer 3-0-27-1, P. Kumar 3-0-36-1, V. Kumar 3-0-15-0, Kumble 3-0-21-0.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: J. Arunkumar (run out) 22, S. Chanderpaul c Kartik b Sharma 7, M. Boucher (not out) 50, R. Dravid b Ganguly 5, C. White (run out) 30, P. Kumar (not out) 4; Extras (lb-3, w-2, nb-1): 6; Total (for four wkts. in 16 overs): 124.

Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-32, 3-51, 4-96.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Dinda 3-0-20-0, Sharma 4-0-25-1, Gul 3-0-30-0, Ganguly 3-0-7-1, Kartik 2-0-24-0, Shukla 1-0-15-0.


Source: http://www.hindu.com