On a night when MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai saw stars galore, with some great names from modern day cricket in both the teams, Kolkata Knight Riders required the heroics of a little known batsman Manvinder Bisla to help them realize their dream of winning the Indian Premier League.

The match started on a good note for the defending champions Chennai Super Kings and the way they batted, it looked like Kolkata would have to wait for another year to kiss the trophy. But Bisla fiery innings quashed Chennai’s hope and their hopes of lifting the trophy for third consecutive times were killed.

Chasing a target of 191, Kolkata did face initial hiccups but then they recovered and won the match in the ultimate over of the match. Even though Bisla was the headliner in the match there were other performances also that shaped the course of the match:

Here are some of the hits and flops of the match:

Kolkata Knight Riders:

Hits:

Manvinder Bisla: He was the man for Kolkata Knight Riders. After a dormant season, he was asked to open the batting on perhaps the biggest night of his life. Coming into a match with not many matches in hand, it looked like it was a great gamble made by Gambhir. But his faith paid off and he was all over the Chennai bowlers much against their wildest dreams. He took Chennai’s bowling attack to the cleaners and was batting with great conviction. He played good cricketing shots and did mix it well with his unorthodox reverse sweeps as well. He scored 89 of just 48 deliveries laced with eight fours and five sixes. He was eventually named the man of the match.

Jacques Kallis: He was the man who stood there as an anchor and played a perfect partner to Bisla. If Bisla was on a attacking mode, the experienced Kallis showed that why is he rated as such a high cricketer in modern times. He used all his experiences to read the situation well and played a gem on an innings. His was happy nudging the ball around and scoring occasional boundaries. He shifted gears only after Bisla’s dismissal and scored 69 of 49 deliveries. His innings included seven fours and a six and played till the end to make sure that his innings did provide the lower order batsmen to come make merry.

Flops:

Brett Lee: He was brought into the crucial match of the tournament and the team expected him to perform according to the standards set by him. But he could not and was carted all over the CSK batsmen. He gave away 42 runs in his stipulated four overs and went wicket less.

Chennai Super Kings:

Opening pair of Michael Hussey and Murali Vijay: The opening pair of Hussey and Vijay were on song and it was much due to their opening stand that the defending champions could pile up such a massive score. Both theses batsmen took on the attack to the KKR bowlers from the onset and put up an 87 runs partnership in 10.2 overs. While Vijay contributed 42, Hussey played his part and scored 41.

Hussey eventually went on to score 54 runs.

Suresh Raina: After not contributing much throughout the tournament, he could not have chosen a better day to show his class. He was at his attacking spree and was on a six hitting spree. He scored 73 of 38 deliveries which included three fours and five sixes. His blitz unfortunately for him and the team went in vain.

Flops:

Dwayne Bravo: He is a player on whom the Chennai Super Kings depend a lot and have lot of faith in. But then he was one of the main reasons as to Chennai ended on the losing side. Being a bowler that he is, his figures did not justify his might. He was asked to bowl the last over of the match with KKR still needing nine runs. He has bowled in crunch situation earlier as well but yesterday he went astray. He could not ball according to the field which resulted in two back to back fours and hence end of story for CSK. He returned with figures of 49 in 3.4 overs.

By Indian Sports News Network