Unbeaten half centuries by skipper Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League here yesterday.
Unbeaten half centuries by skipper Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis powered Kolkata Knight Riders to a comfortable nine-wicket victory over Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League here yesterday.
Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir strokes his way to an
unbeaten 75 against Rajasthan in Jaipur yesterday. Pic/AFP
Gambhir (75 off 44) and Kallis (80 off 65) scored 152 runs for the second wicket as Knight Riders chased down Royals' 159/4 in 20 overs with nine balls to spare. Barring the initial hiccup of losing opener Manvinder Bisla (1) to a run out in the second over, the Knight Riders never faced any challenge from the Rajasthan bowlers, with both Gambhir and Kallis going for the kill on the slow pitch.
Gambhir came down heavily on the spinners, smacking 11 fours and a six during his innings. Kallis joined the party with seven fours and two sixes and also earned the orange cap for becoming the leading run-getter in the tournament.
Sent in, Rajasthan's total was propped by a 52-run second-wicket stand by Rahul Dravid (35) and Ashok Menaria (27) after losing opener Amit Paunikar (9) early. Al Hasan struck in his first over when he dismissed Paunikar to give Knight Riders the breakthrough. Australian Shane Watson, who was playing his first match for Rajasthan Royals after notching up the world record for most sixes (15) in an ODI innings against Bangladesh, whacked two huge sixes in his 22 runs off 13 balls before Shakib Al Hasan (2-31) cut short his innings in the 17th over.
Yusuf Pathan removed Dravid and Menaria in the same over to peg back Knight Riders' after Royals negotiated the attack with ease. Ross Taylor provided the late thrust hitting two sixes and two fours in the final overs during his quick-fire unbeaten 35 off 25 balls.
Scorecard
Rajasthan Royals
Amit Paunikar c Kallis b
Shakib 9
Rahul Dravid b Pathan 35
Ashok Menaria c & b Yusuf Pathan 27
Shane Watson b Shakib 22
Ross Taylor not out 35
Johan Botha not out 12
Extras: (B1, Lb6, W12) 19
Total: (for four wickets
in 20 overs) 159
Fall of wickets:
1-26 (Paunikar, 4.3 overs)
2-78 (Dravid, 11.3)
3-79 (Menaria, 11.5)
4-124 (Watson, 16.4)
Bowling:
Brett Lee 4-0-29-0
Lakshmipathy Balaji 4-0-31-0
Jacques Kallis 4-0-31-0
Shakib Al Hasan 4-0-31-2
Rajat Bhatia 1-0-12-0
Iqbal Abdulla 2-0-14-0
Yusuf Pathan 1-0-4-2
Kolkata Knight Riders
Manvinder Bisla run out (Paunikar/sub) 1
Jacques Kallis not out 80
Gautam Gambhir not out 75
Extras: (W3, Nb1) 4
Total: (for one wicket
in 18.3 overs) 160
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Bisla,
1.2 overs)
Bowling:
Ashok Menaria 2-0-18-0
Amit Singh 2.3-0-26-0
Shane Watson 2-0-18-0
Nayan Doshi 2-0-23-0
Johan Botha 2-0-13-0
Shane Warne 4-0-28-0
Siddharth Trivedi 4-0-34-0
Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders
Result: KKR won by nine wickets
Player of the Match: Gautam Gambhir (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Umpires: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and Sanjay Hazare (India)
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