Bangalore Royal Challengers x Kolkata Knight Riders
Royal Challengers were on the park for the last time under the captaincy of Kevin Pieterson for this season, and the team give a good send off to its captain.
Kolkata were on back foot from the very first ball when McCullum cut a short ball from Pieterson into the hands of Kohli at point. Gayle tried to play a long sedulous and prudent inning, but he was just not build to do that. I appreciate him for his effort though. Bangalore tried 4 slow bowlers and was very successful in their effort. Pieterson and Kumble bowled well, as expected.
The new South African recruit van der Merwe had a good IPL debue. For Kolkata apart from Gayle, the new guy van Wyk looked good with bat. He also kept wickets relieving his captain McCullum. Kolkata post a meagre 140, thanks to Gayle and Van Wyk. Ganguly once again failed to impress, falling yet again to a good short ball from Praveen Kumar.
Bangalore started their inning very prudently. It was understandable with target being 140. They almost pushed Kolkata out of the game by going into STT without losing a wicket. After STT, as often as it seen in this IPL, wicket started falling and Kolkata marched right back into the game. One particular bowler who impressed me in Kolkata team was Ishant. He almost provide the victory for his team, but for Mark Boucher who was pugnacious enough to guide his team to victory in the last over. Boucher made a timely cameo – 25 off 13 balls with 2 FOURs and 1 SIX. He was awarded the Man of the Match award for his performance, a right choice in my view.
Mumbai Indians x Kings IX Punjab
Punjab won the all-important toss, but lost that early advantage the moment when they decide to play out first 3 overs for practically nothing. Goel and Bopara played blind cricket – giving the momentum to the Mumbai team. Zaheer and Malinga happily bowled line-and-length with no pressure from the batsmen. Karan Goel went into the offensive when Harbhajan was introduced in the 5th Over by Tendulkar by slog-sweeping him for SIX. That euphoria did not last too long for Punjab as Goel ran down the wicket on the very next ball, only to be foxed by Harbhajan and getting stumped. Bopara and Yuvraj soon followed Goel, trying to push their runrate up.
In the end, Punjab just couldnt find that momentum they were looking for, and the purple cap owner Malinga ran through their lower middle order to make matters worse. Slinger Malinga ended his day’s work by giving away just 14 runs and taking 2 vital wickets. It was truly a man of the match performance. Kumar Sangakkara remained notout, but he couldnt string through enough shots to take Punjab above 119 in their 20 overs.
I thought Mumbai will walk away with the match with Sachin and Sanath firing at the top. It did not happen. Sachin and Sanath were dismissed very early and for the first time in the season, Mumbai batting looked feckless. Their batting seemed rudderless till young Dumini found an able partner in Abhishek Nayar. They tried their level best and took safer options to take Mumbai close to the target. Their running b/w the wickets were not particularly good. At some points, they even ran into each other. With a pinch of luck with their side, it looked like they were going to take Mumbai to shore.
Irfan Pathan finally broke the Dumini-Nayar partnership with an in-swinging yorker, uprooting Nayar’s leg stump. That wicket once again put Punjab on top. Mumbai still had hopes as Dumini was at the wicket. After 18 overs, Mumbai needed 19 runs. Harbhajan was at strike. Stand-in skipper Sangakkara (Yuvraj was out because of injury) first opted for Yusuf Abdulla then retract back to Piyush Chawla to bowl the 19th over. That was a golden decision as Chawla not only took the wicket of Harbhajan, but he gave away only 6 runs in the over.
Final over was bit dramatic, as Abdulla bowled most of that with Long-off inside the circle, but Dumini, looking tired and with no timing, kept trying to clear midwicket boundary with big heaves. With the dismissal of Dumini in the 4th ball of the over, it was clear that Mumbai are going down in this match.
I dont understand one thing with Dumini…even after batting for an hour on that wicket..he was struggling to find some timing. If he could hit few boundaries when he was there, especially towards the end of the game, the result of the match would have been quiet different.
In the end, Kumar Sangakkara was awarded the man of the match and a kiss from preity zinta for his gritty 45. I thought Yusuf Abdulla or Lasith Malinga should have been awarded man of the match for their sheer effort to contain high-calibre batsmen on this spungy pitch.
