Bangalore captain Daniel Vettori’s decision to field backfire as Kolkata Knight Riders openers - Gambhir and Kallis – raced off the blocks. The innings survive a stammer in the middle, as 8wickets fell for just 39 runs, but the hasty beginning ensures a competitive 165-8 for runs KKR.
Bangalore’s reply never took off. Cheteshwar Pujara began with a six off Brett Lee, but soon snicked Kallis to slip. The South African veteran struck a death blow when he got clear of Chris Gayle in the 4over – the bulky West Indian top-edging a short release to mid-on.
Then it was time for Balaji to lithe into action. The seamer broke RCB’s back by claiming a wicket in each of his 4 over’s, getting rid of Virat Kohli, A.B. de Villiers, Mayank Aggrawal and Vettori, as the home team found itself virtually out of the contest at 60 for six in the 12th over. The reply finished on 123-9, mournfully short of the target.
Earlier, KKR built on two partnerships at the start of their innings after being sent in to bat. Gambhir and Kellies additional 60 in 6.2 overs pick regular fours off Zaheer Khan and Vinay Kumar to get the host moving. Gambhir was particularly harsh on medium-pacer Harshal Patel, taking 15 from his 1st over, and followed it up with two beautiful fours – on also side of the wicket – off Zaheer.
Not to be left behind, Kallis greeted Muralitharan with slog-swept six, as KKR reached 60 at the end of the compulsory Power play with both openers making it count in the middle. Vettori bring himself on and immediately had Kallis caught at the back with one that came in.
Bisla (46) walked in and took over the scoring role from Gambhir, carting an s6 apiece off Vettori, Kohli and Harshal. Gambhir for now had motored along; bring up his 50 with a cover-driven four off Vinay, as KKR’s run-rate hover in the vicinity of 10-an-over. At this point, a total of 200 looked on the cards, but RCB’s bowlers pulled things back admirably afterward.
KKR lost 8 wickets for 39 runs in the last 6 over’s of its innings. Bisla led the march, and Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan, Manoj Tiwary, Ryan ten Doeschate and Shakib al Hasan followed suit. Vinay was the pick of RCB’s bowlers as he accepted just 5runs in his last two overs, last with figures of 4-0-18-2. However, Bangalore’s supremacy in the closing stages of KKR’s innings was all but undone by irresponsible batting during the chase.
