Gayle stars for Kolkata Win Over Punjab Kings in rain-affected TIE

The Gayle Force Does It Again

On yet another overcast day in South Africa, two teams who were being written off after their first matches, squared off against each other with each hoping desperately to avoid defeat. Both teams would have been aware that this was a match they had to win to regain credibility with their supporters.

Brendom McCullum won the toss, and opted to field. For Kolkata, there was still no Mendis in the playing eleven, although they made one change - dropping Agarkar for rookie Yashpal Singh. Punjab retained the same eleven that played against Delhi.

Kolkatta started off well, with Ishant Sharma finding his rhythm and getting Karan Goel caught in the slips by Chris Gayle in his first over. That brought Irfan Pathan to the crease, who was promoted to No.3. Irfan swung his bat lustily and was looking ominous, when Sourav Ganguly turned things around for his team with a superb first over that saw him pick up two wickets and beat Yuvraj's bat a couple of times.

Punjab had their best batsmen - Yuvraj and Sangakkara - at the crease, and they then set about rebuilding the innings. Their partnership of 56, scored in fairly quick time, was brought to an end by a needless run-out when Yuvraj correctly did not respond to Sangakkara's call for a rash single. The wicket was lost at the most inopportune moment, because Ishant and Ganguly, the two best bowlers of the day, had just been bowled out. Yuvraj fell trying to hit one six too many, and a cameo by Mahela Jayawardene took Punjab to a respectable 158 for 6.

To successfully chase that, Kolkata needed one batsman to get stuck in and play a long innings, and it had to be one of the top four - or as cricket fans like to call them - one of the multiple captaincy candidates. The innings got off to a sedate start, but then the King's Eleven were hit by a Gayle force.

Chris Gayle exploded in the fourth over the way only he can - swatting sixes and fours nonchalantly. It didn't help Punjab that he was dropped twice - by Karan Goel at mid-wicket and by Sangakkara behind the stumps. McCullum's wicket pulled things back for the King's XI a touch, but Gayle still found the timing to smash yet another six, before the by-now-familiar rain came down, and the players trooped off the field, for what turned out to be the end of the match. Kolkata were sitting pretty at 79 for 1 after 9.2 overs, and Messrs Duckworth-Lewis confirmed that they were ahead of the required score by 11 runs.

Punjab lost their second successive match after a rain interruption, and although they were clearly not in the driving seat when the rains came down, they will feel hard done by.

Man of the Match:

Chris Gayle for his hurricane innings that made the difference between victory and defeat.

Turning Point of the Match:

Karan Goel dropping Gayle, when the latter was on 2 off 4 balls. Sangakkara dropped Gayle too but that was when he had already powered to 32 off 17 balls. Goel's drop was by far the costlier of the two - he scored 42 off 22 balls after that drop, which was a match-winning effort.

Soundbytes:

"McCullum eased the pressure off me. I tried to get my eye in." - this from Chris Gayle who scored 44 not out off 26 balls. McCullum was out for 21 off 16 balls.

Kolkata Knighr Riders Vs Kings XI Punjab - Pre Match Analysis

Vs

Ground Reality and Pitch: 

The home ground of the KwaZulu-Natal Dolphins, Kingsmead Durban is the ground which is mythically known for the tidal influence because of its close proximity to the sea. Indian fans will have mixed memories of the ground - it was here that India were skittled out for 100 and 66 in two innings against an Allan Donald led South African attack. But it was also here that Yuvraj Singh hit 6 sixes against Stuart Broad. 

It has a seating capacity of 25,000. 

The pitch has traditionally favoured the seamers, but has mellowed down in the last few years, and though not a batting paradise, it shouldn't be a batting graveyard either. 

Team News: 

Kolkata Knight Riders: The Knight Riders are still in the process of looking for their Knight in shining pads and gloves. A SWOT analysis of their chances before the IPL would have revealed explosive openers, and a decent attack as strenghts, lack of Indian batting strenght and lop-sided team balance (the team depends almost exclusively on the imports to win) as weaknesses, unearthing new talent as an opportunity, and team disunity as a threat. After one match the analysis would stay the same, except that the openers have exploded with all the verve of a damp firecracker, and the attack has only made the opposition batsmen look decent. With the strenghts drying up, and the weaknesses more glaring, the master of all he surveys in the Knight Riders camp - Buchanan - decided on the master-stroke of leaving Ajantha Mendis out of the playing eleven. This, after Kumble, Warne, Harbhajan, Jayasuriya and Vettori had shown the value of quality spin in these conditions. To be fair to him, he might have been deciding who would captain the side during the strategy breaks, so was understandbly too busy to pay close attention to team selection. 

King's Eleven Punjab: They are pretty much in the same boat as the Knight Riders, with two important differences: 1.) their boat hasn't yet sunk as low as KKR's and 2.) they have the incentive of a Preity Zinta hug if they win the match. After a dismal start, this is their best chance to put some early points on the board against a team in disarray. If Karan Goel can carry forward his form, and Sangakkara can add the runs that are expected of him, they will have a chance to put up a fighting total. The bowling remains a major worry though. 

Players to Watch: 

Ajantha Mendis: Was inexplicably left out of Kolkata's first match, but it would be unthinkable to leave him out this time. Can control the middle overs the way the other spinners have done for their sides, making scoring difficult for the Kolkata batsmen.  

Karan Goel: Showed undoubted promise during his brief, explosive innings in Punjab's opening match. For his own sake, and for the team, he needs to carry on, and get a 50+ score, which, if scored at the pace he did last time, would give the King's Eleven a very good platform. 

Numbers Game: 

55.88 - Brad Hodge's average in test match cricket. He has played only 6 test matches for Australia. 

5.65 - Ishant Sharma's economy rate in ODIs, which is higher than Ajit Agarkar's (5.07) 

Trivia: 

Brad Hodge is amongst the unluckiest players of his generation. Not only has he played at time when it was impossible to break into the Australian middle order, but in the few chances he did get, fate seemed to be against him. In his first 12 matches, his highest score was 99 Not Out, with a second highest of 97 Not Out. He also scored 49 (out) during that period. He has played just 25 ODIs for Australia, with one century and 3 fifties, scored at a strike rate of 87.51. 

Soundbytes: 

"It was a cricketing decision. People who have cricketing head and mind -- Dada (Ganguly), (John) Buchanan and team management -- had taken the decision. I hope it is for the betterment of the team." - Shah Rukh Khan. 

Delhi wallops Punjab by 10 wickets

IPL -2009 MATCH NO. 3
VIRU STRIKES FOR A WARM VICTORY OVER Preeti Zinta's PUNJABI LIONS

Persistent rain forced the match between Punjab and Delhi to be shortened to a 12 over affair.

Delhi left out the exciting Warner, and opted to include left-arm quick Dirk Nannes. They also opted to rest Glenn McGrath, preferring to preserve him for the business end of the tournament.

Virender Sehwag won the toss and inserted Punjab in as expected with the overcast conditions and the shortened match.

The decision was made to look extremely silly in the first half of the Punjab innings, with Karan Goel and Ravi Bopara going beserk. Goel got out off the last ball of the 6th over, with the score a formidable 67 for 1.

From there things started to go downhill for Punjab as they managed only 37 more runs for the loss of 6 more wickets in the next six overs.

Spin was king again with Daniel Vettori turning in a spell of 3-0-15-3. His spell also saw two of Punjab's batsmen run themselves out needlessly - with Yuvraj Singh being the culprit on one occasion and Piyush Chawla suffering on account of Irfan Pathan's reckless call.

Punjab eventually ended up on a fairly decent 104 for 7, but it was at least 20 runs short of where they should have ended after the start they got.

If the first half of the Punjab innings saw one way traffic with the ball being fetched regularly from the stands, the second half saw one way traffic in the other direction, with batsmen trooping back to the pavilion.

When Delhi came out to bat, what Punjab needed was quick wickets. What they got was 11 balls of a Gauti-Viru special, before the skies opened up with heavier rain than there had been all day. The hottest opening pair in the business blasted four 4s and a six in those eleven balls to take Delhi to 24 without loss.

When play started again, the target had been revised to 54 from 6 overs - which meant Delhi had just 30 more to get from 25 balls, with a rampaging Sehwag and an equally belligerent Gambhir at the crease.

The break did nothing to stem the flow of runs, and Delhi needed only 18 more balls (3 overs) to knock off the runs. At the end Sehwag was unbeaten on a furious 38 off 16 balls, while Gambhir looked positively snail-like on 16 off 13 balls, while Delhi had won at a canter by 10 wickets. It says much for the might of the Delhi team that they won comfortably even though they rested McGrath and didn't pick Twenty20 specialist Warner.

Man of the Match:

Daniel Vettori, whose crucial spell put the brakes on Punjab's free scoring and made the job much easier for his formidable batting lineup.

Turning Point of the Match:

11th over of the match, bowled by Vettori. Before the over Punjab were at 91 for 3. At the end of the over, they had slid to 98 for 6. Vettori's tight bowling contributed to two suicidal runs resulting in two run-outs and he picked up the wicket of Jayawardene too.

Soundbytes:

"It's nice to have Sehwag and Gambhir on the same side for a change!" - Daniel Vettori gets candid, with memories of India's tour to New Zealand still fresh.

"Sachin and Rahul are legends of the game, they have 10000+ runs in both ODIs and Tests, so they can adapt to any format. I'm proud to play in the same team as them" - Virender Sehwag makes a heartwarming comment about two people he's grown up watching and played alongside.