Friday, April 15, 2011

Kolkata make Rajasthan bite the dust


Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis came up with unbeaten half-centuries as Kolkata thumped Rajasthan Royals by nine wickets



Captain Gambhir scored 75 off 44 balls while Kallis (80 off 65) became the highest run-scorer (187 from three matches) in the tournament so far.

The pair's unbroken 152-run stand off 17.1 overs helped the visitors chase down 159 with nine balls to spare.

Earlier, batting first after losing the toss, Rahul Dravid gave the Royals a solid start with two crucial stands - 27 runs with Amit Paunikar and 52 with Ashok Menaria.

A double strike from Yusuf Pathan then pegged Rajasthan back to 79 for three in the 12th over. The big all-rounder first bowled a free-stroking Dravid (35) through the gate and then caught Menaria (27) off his own bowling.

But Shane Watson and Ross Taylor regained the momentum with their breezy stand, with the Australian leading the charge with his 13-ball 22.

Just when Watson appeared to be getting on top of the opposition attack, he was bowled by Shakib Al Hasan, who had dismissed Paunikar early on.

Taylor and Johan Botha, however, kept up the pressure, adding 35 off 20 balls in a late blitz to end the innings on 159 for four.

Needing to score at nearly eight an over, Kallis and Gambhir blasted 50 off just 27 balls despite the visiting team losing Manvinder Bisla to a run-out in the second over.

Gambhir singled out Amit Singh for special treatment, blasting four boundaries off his second over as the Kolkata captain blazed to his ninth IPL half-century off only 28 balls.

Kolkata raced past 100 in the 12th over and Kallis soon brought up his third straight IPL half-century off 46 balls.

There was a momentary scare for the Knight Riders in the 15th over when Gambhir holed out to deep mid-wicket off Siddharth Trivedi, but umpire Aleem Dar signalled no-ball as there were only three fielders inside the circle.

Amid the confusion the throw from Botha had sneaked past the boundary rope at the other end, resulting in four bonus runs for Kolkata via an overthrow.

Undeterred by the chaos, Kallis and Gambhir rattled off the required runs with a flurry of boundaries to finish things in style.

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