The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Night belongs to Knight Riders

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Night belongs to Knight Riders

K.C. Vijaya Kumar

Bangalore: A Kiwi typhoon rippled through the Bangalore skies as Brendon McCullum etched his name on a warm Friday night at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. McCullum’s brazen unbeaten 158, the highest in the history of Twenty20 cricket, proved to be too strong a gale force for host Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The Sourav Ganguly-led Kolkata Knight Riders carved out a 140-run victory in the inaugural DLF Indian Premier League’s opening match that turned out to be a lopsided contest. Chasing 223 for victory, Royal Challengers mustered only 82 in 15.1 overs.

Man-of-the-Match McCullum’s blistering knock, which included 10 boundaries and 13 sixes, helped the Knight Riders post 222 for three from 20 overs and derailed Rahul Dravid’s best-laid plans after the Royal Challengers skipper opted to bowl.

The death rattle of the Royal Challengers innings was evident from the time Dravid’s hoick connected air and Ishant Sharma breached ‘The Wall’.

Falling like nine pins

Dravid was gone for a mere two and the score read four for one in 1.1 overs. The rest did not inspire confidence. Virat Kohli was castled by seamer Ashok Dinda and Jacques Kallis, after hoisting Ajit Agarkar for six, found Murali Kartik at mid-on off the next delivery.

Wasim Jaffer, Mark Boucher and Cameron White too perished with their mix of tentative and ambitious shots as they kept blinking at a galloping required run-rate. Agarkar picked up three wickets but Ishant with a combined spell of 3-0-7-1 was the pick of the bowlers. His pace and angle tested the home side’s batting mettle.

The scores:

Kolkata Knight Riders: 222 for three in 20 overs.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: R. Dravid b Ishant 2, W. Jaffer c Ponting b A. Dinda 6, V. Kohli b Dinda 1, J. Kallis c M. Kartik b Agarkar 8, C. White c Saha b Agarkar 6, M. Boucher c Kartik b Ganguly 7, B. Akhil c Ponting b Agarkar 0, A. Noffke (run out) 9, Praveen (not out) 18, Zaheer b Ganguly 3, S. Joshi c McCullum b Shukla 3; Extras: (lb-8, w-11) 19; Total: (in 15.1 overs) 82.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-9, 3-24, 4-24, 5-38, 6-38, 7-43, 8-57, 9-70.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Dinda 3-0-9-2, Ishant 3-0-7-1, Agarkar 4-0-25-3, Ganguly 4-0-21-2, Shukla 1.1-0-12-1.

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