Kolkata Knight Riders had its spinners to thank for the 34-run win over Pune Warriors.
Kolkata Knight Riders sealed the second place in the points table with a crushing 34-run victory over Pune Warriors in their final group league encounter of the Indian Premier League here on Saturday.
Defending a small total of 136 on a difficult pitch, the KKR spinners restricted Warriors to a paltry 102 for eight in stipulated 20 overs.
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Sunil Narine (right) and Yusuf Pathan (left) celebrate the dismissal of a Pune batsman. Pic/AFP
While KKR with 21 points will get a maximum of two matches in the play-offs to qualify, the Warriors led by Sourav Ganguly hit a new low — u00a0losing nine consecutive matches— a record in the IPL. If Deccan Chargers manage to win the last match, the Warriors will finish last in the points table.u00a0
The Knight Riders’ spinners did a commendable job as all of them shared the spoils. Shakib Al Hasan (2/28 & 42 runs) was man-of-the-match with his all-round show while Yusuf Pathan (2/12), Iqbal Abdulla (1/20), Sunil Narine (2/15) everyone chipped in with crucial wickets. The ability to fight was simply not there in Warriors whose campaign was rocked primarily due to poor form of their skipper who had one of the worst strike-rates (less than 100) for a top-order batsman in T20 cricket.u00a0
The target of 137 wasn’t big enough but the slowness of the track with some sharp turn made things difficult for the home team whose confidence had already hit nadir. With two left-arm spinners and two off-spinners in the KKR line-up, it became a Herculean task for Warriors batsmen to negotiate.u00a0
Jesse Ryder top-scored for Pune with a slow 22 off 24 balls.
Earlier, a slow pitch and some disciplined bowling effort by Pune Warriors helped them restrict Kolkata Knight Riders to 136 for four in a final group league encounter of the IPL, here today.
Brendon McCullum (41, 43 balls, 5x4) and Shakib Al Hasan (42, 30 balls, 3x4, 2x6) added 67 runs for the third wicket in 7.3 overs on a track where strokemaking was difficult but still it looked that KKR were 20 runs short.
For Pune, left-arm seamer Wayne Parnell was the pick of the bowlers with impressive figures of two for 18 while Bhuveneshwar Kumar and Michael Clarke also got a wicket each.
KKR's in-form captain Gautam Gambhir was out early when he failed to clear the mid-on fielder off Parnell's bowling. The opening pair managed only 21 in 4.3 overs. McCullum and Jacques Kallis (13) couldn't up the ante on a pitch where the ball wasn't exactly coming on to the bat. A desperate Kallis tried to hit the left-arm spin of Clarke inside-out but only managed to bottom-edge it onto the stumps.
Then McCullum-Shakib partnership started. The right-left combination did nudge singles and twos as KKR crawled to 45 for two in the first 10 overs. It was the 12th over of the innings when McCullum who was playing sedately cut loose hitting a couple of boundaries.
In the next over, Shakib hit Clarke for two huge sixes and in between those two shots was dropped by Parnell in the deep mid-wicket. The 100 came up in the 15th over with 56 being scored in between overs 11th and 15th.
However once McCullum was gone trying to clear extra cover, the scoring rate dipped once again. Shakib who was playing was bowled by Bhuveneshwar's yorker. Yusuf Pathan (15 no, 10 balls) and Manoj Tiwary (8 no) couldn't produce much fireworks in the final few overs as it looked that KKR are 20 runs short. Both looked woefull out of touch.u00a0
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