Kolkata Knight Riders showed why they are considered to be one of the title contenders as they defeated much fancied Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium by a massive margin of 42 runs. With the win KKR have opened their account in the points table and showed that they can be very dominant once they find their rhythm. It was a team effort that won Kolkata their first match as both their bowlers and batsmen did exceptionally well to outplay a strong looking RCB. The team from Bangalore however, had a very bad day on the park as their batting unit failed miserably.

Hits and flops for Royal Challengers Bangalore

Hits

Vinay Kumar: The million dollar man once again showed that he is worth the money that RCB management invested on him in this years’ auction. The KKR team went off to a flier and was looking good to score around 200 runs as at the half-way mark their run-rate was around 10. Vinay Kumar bowled a brilliantly to spoil KKR’s plans as he took the wickets of the big hitting Yusuf Pathan and then the talented Bangladeshi Shakib AL Hasan. Vinay Kumar gave away only 18 runs in his four overs and stopped KKR reaching a formidable total.

Muttiah Muralitharan: Muralitharan was hit for a six on the first ball that he bowled in his spell by Jacques Kallis. But, thereafter he showed why he is considered to be one of the greatest spinners of all time. He got the crucial wicket of Manvinder Bisla who was taking the game away from RCB. Along with Vinay Kumar, Murali was also the reason why the KKR team did not score around 200.

Flops

Complete Batting Unit: No team can win a match if none of their top order batsmen has a substantial score against their name. This is what exactly happened to the RCB team. The RCB bowlers did well to restrict KKR to 165 after the explosive start that the visiting team got and it was looking as if the RCB team will cruise to a win on a very good pitch. It didn’t happen though as all the RCB superstars failed to build an innings. A lot was expected from Chris Gayle who was playing his first match of the tournament, but he let his fans down as he tried to hit a Kallis short bowl to the long-on boundary, he could only manage to scoop the ball and the fielder took an easy catch at mid-on. Gayle’s wicket brought Virat Kohli on the pitch and he started his innings steadily. The pressure told on him as he tried to hit a shot across the line only to give a simple catch to the man standing at backward-point. Kohli took 14 balls to score six and was not impressive at all. 

Last match’s hero AB de Villiers got a beauty from Balaji and he couldn’t do much about and could only manage 10 runs to his name. Local talent Cheteshwar Pujara and Saurabh Tiwary also failed to have any influence on the match as both of them went cheaply.

Hits and flops for Kolkata Knight Riders

Hits

Lakshmipathy Balaji: Balaji’s bowling reminded everyone the way he bowled in Pakistan where he architected India’s series win. He bowled with tremendous rhythm and great control. The ball that he bowled to the South African captain AB de Villiers was virtually unplayable. Balaji took four wickets and gave away only 18 runs in his spell. He got some good out-swing and troubled every batsmen that came his way.

Gautam Gambhir: Gambhir did the right thing by promoting himself at the top of the innings as he played some tremendous shots right from the word go and gave KKR their best start of the tournament. Gambhir played with immense timing and penetrated the gap at every given opportunity. He took the attack to the opposition and dictated terms to the RCB bowlers. Gambhir looked a man-in-form and gave KKR a perfect platform to explode.

Manvinder Bisla: Bisla was brought into the team as a replacement for Brendon McCullum. Bisla however, did what McCullum did not in the two opportunities that he got – to take the attack to the opposition. Bisla played some tremendous shots in his innings and till the time he was at the crease; the KKR team were looking good to score well past 200. Bisla played only 29 balls for his 46, an inning that included two boundaries and three humongous six.

Flops:

Yusuf Pathan: Yusuf Pathan is having a terrible IPL so far and his bad form continued as he once again failed for the KKR team. A lot is expected from this belligerent Baroda batsman but he has failed to deliver in all the opportunities that he has got. Pathan could only manage one run before getting out to a very poor shot. He came at a stage most suited to him as all he needed to do was carry forward the good work done by Gambhir and Bisla. Pathan will have to get his act together or soon there will be some difficult questions that will be asked from him.

The two international all-rounders: Both Ryan ten Doeschate and Shakib Al Hasan failed in the first opportunity that they got in this season. The stage was perfectly set for these two explosive batsmen to take the game away from RCB, but they both perished after playing some bad strokes. Together they scored only seven runs.

By Gaurav Jha
Indian Sports News