Balaji helps Knights to crush Royal Challengers
BANGALORE: Kolkata Knight Riders stormed back to the winning ways by crushing Royal Challengers by 42 runs in their IPL T20 cricket clash at the unusually empty Chinnaswamy Stadium on a working Tuesday.
The cloudy conditions perhaps forced the home team to put the visitors in to bat after winning the toss. Kolkata scored 165 for 8 and then ensured that Chris Gayle and company reached only 123 for 9 to score a huge victory after two straight defeats.
The heroes for Kolkata were Gautam Gambhir who hammered 64 off 39 with nine fours and six and Laxmipathy Balaji who cl''a'''i''m''ed 4 for 18, his third four wicket spell equalling the legendary Anil Kumble's feat in the tournament.
On a good batting strip 165 wasn't a huge target but Bangalore's batsmen disappeared faster than they arrived. Cheteshwar Pujara began the slide edging Jacques Kallis to Yusuf Pathan at first slip. Kallis then struck a huge blow as he dropped one short to Chris Gayle who only managed a top edge and going for a huge one and Laxmi Rattan Shukla at mid-on held his nerve to hop him.
Brett Lee went wicketless but caused enough problems with his clever variation of the swinging and straighter ones what with Kallis already on song. The advent of Balaji turned the tide completely in favour of Kolkata.
He sent a good length delivery which Virat Kohli tried to turn but only managed to get a thick outside edge to Manoj Tiwari at point.
He then pitched on the middle and it swung delicately to flummox Ab de Villiers whose off stump went rolling and it was all over bar the shouting.
Balaji then had Mayank Agarwal offering a simple catch to skipper Gambhir in the covers and then varied his pace to produce a slower one which skipper Daniel Vettori knew nothing about and was bowled.
Balaji thus claimed his third four-wicket haul in IPL to equal Anil Kumble's record on the latter's home turf. The rest was just a matter of going through the motions.
Earlier, apart from Gambhir, Kallis (22) and Manvinder Bisla (46) were the only others to post a decent total.
Vinay Kumar, Muthiah Muralitharan and Zaheer Khan claimed two wickets each to trigger a collapse as Kolkata were reduced to 8 for 154 after being 125 for 1 at one point.
However, it did not ma''t''ter in the end as Bangalore's batsmen more than emulated them in falling in a heap.
BANGALORE: Kolkata Knight Riders stormed back to the winning ways by crushing Royal Challengers by 42 runs in their IPL T20 cricket clash at the unusually empty Chinnaswamy Stadium on a working Tuesday.
The cloudy conditions perhaps forced the home team to put the visitors in to bat after winning the toss. Kolkata scored 165 for 8 and then ensured that Chris Gayle and company reached only 123 for 9 to score a huge victory after two straight defeats.
The heroes for Kolkata were Gautam Gambhir who hammered 64 off 39 with nine fours and six and Laxmipathy Balaji who cl''a'''i''m''ed 4 for 18, his third four wicket spell equalling the legendary Anil Kumble's feat in the tournament.
On a good batting strip 165 wasn't a huge target but Bangalore's batsmen disappeared faster than they arrived. Cheteshwar Pujara began the slide edging Jacques Kallis to Yusuf Pathan at first slip. Kallis then struck a huge blow as he dropped one short to Chris Gayle who only managed a top edge and going for a huge one and Laxmi Rattan Shukla at mid-on held his nerve to hop him.
Brett Lee went wicketless but caused enough problems with his clever variation of the swinging and straighter ones what with Kallis already on song. The advent of Balaji turned the tide completely in favour of Kolkata.
He sent a good length delivery which Virat Kohli tried to turn but only managed to get a thick outside edge to Manoj Tiwari at point.
He then pitched on the middle and it swung delicately to flummox Ab de Villiers whose off stump went rolling and it was all over bar the shouting.
Balaji then had Mayank Agarwal offering a simple catch to skipper Gambhir in the covers and then varied his pace to produce a slower one which skipper Daniel Vettori knew nothing about and was bowled.
Balaji thus claimed his third four-wicket haul in IPL to equal Anil Kumble's record on the latter's home turf. The rest was just a matter of going through the motions.
Earlier, apart from Gambhir, Kallis (22) and Manvinder Bisla (46) were the only others to post a decent total.
Vinay Kumar, Muthiah Muralitharan and Zaheer Khan claimed two wickets each to trigger a collapse as Kolkata were reduced to 8 for 154 after being 125 for 1 at one point.
However, it did not ma''t''ter in the end as Bangalore's batsmen more than emulated them in falling in a heap.
News Posted: 11 April, 2012
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