Kolkata gallop into 1st Time IPL final

PUNE: His bizarre antics can lastly be appended to a reason. Shahrukh Khan bounded about like a rabbit on speed, hugging his teammates on the field of play – Yes! He was allowed to enter the arena on this occasion – as his permit Kolkata Knight Riders strode into their 1st IPL final, after outplaying Delhi Daredevils by 18 runs in the ‘Qualifier 1’ on Tuesday night.

Spin-heavy Kolkata batted 1st, pulled themselves up to 162-4, thanks to Yusuf Pathan’s and Balaji Shukla late onslaught, and then stalled Delhi on 144-8 with their battery of bowlers – mainly the confounding mystery spinner Sunil Narine and expert seamer Jacques Kallis, both of whom had match figures of 4-0-24-2.Delhi has another chance of making the last when they play the winner of the Mumbai Indians-Chennai Super Kings eliminator.

In chase of a tricky target, Delhi suffered a massive hinder when David Warner was out to a horrible caught-behind decision off Shakib Al Hasan in the 2nd over of the chase. Virender Sehwag, back after sitting out with an illness, followed soon after, slashing a wide Balaji deliverance to the ‘keeper. With 2 of their most dangerous batsmen out, Delhi faced a mammoth task ahead, but were bring back in contention with a 59-run partnership between Mahela Jayewardene (40) and Naman Ojha (29).

The alliance ended when Ojha cut Rajat Bhatia directly to point, and the death knell was sound when Jayewardene charged Iqbal Abdullah only to be stumped – after a minor fumble – by Brendon McCollum. Delhi needed 54 runs in 5 overs at that stage and a cascade of wickets resulted as the batsmen went after the spinners. Really, the chase was never on after Ross Taylor was demoting to below Pawan Negi in the batting order. Earlier, KKR, safe in the information that they contained 3 spinners in their eleven, batted 1st on a pitch with more than reasonable turn and grip.

Delhi’s attack comprise three quicks and Gambhir took an immediate liking to them, provided his team a blistering start with a 16-ball 32.Gambhir began with a pulled maximum off Umesh Yadav and tore into Varun Aaron for 6 and 4 in the last over of the Power play. Failure struck in the same over when the Kolkata captain was run out. He thumps Varun to mid-off, and was late returning to the crease after having backed up too far. A straight hit from Venugopal Rao found Gambhir short of his ground, and the wicket pegged KKR back.

The next 10 overs yield just 58 runs as Brendon McCollum (31) and Jacques Kallis (32) struggled to go faster. Left-arm spinner Negi slipped in his overs for precious little and picked up the New Zealander with bright turn, as he sliced one high into the night sky and was taken smartly by Warner.In the next over, Shakib edged Irfan Pathan to the ‘keeper and soon after Kallis walked off when he pull Umesh down Taylor’s throat. The 3 fast wickets stalled KKR and they would have been in fall were it not for Yusuf and Laxmi Shukla.

Yusuf shrugged off his uncaring season to partner Shukla for 56 runs in just four overs. The burly right-hander cream Morkel for a straight 6and powered boundaries off Umesh. Shukla too chip in, lofting Morkel for four and implementation a savage pull for maximum gain against the same bowler.

The final over, bowled by Varun Aaron, was a run fest. Warner dropped Yusuf at long-on and conceded a six instead as the ball sailed over the ropes. Yusuf smack vicious cover drives off the very last 2 deliveries, both to the fence, taking the cost of the final over to 21. Kolkata ended with 162 – a massive total consider the nature of the wicket.

Man of the match

Yusuf Pathan

Today Match

Super Kings v Mum Indians (20:00 local | 14:30 GMT)

IPL Thrilling Climax This Week

The I P L heads for a thrilling climax this week when the play-offs take place to decide the champions of this season popular T20 tournament.

The 5th edition of the glitzy cash-rich event is already being hailed as the most moving ever despite off-field troubles as packed houses watched beguiling cricket over the past 6 weeks. The last spot in the play-offs was decided in Sunday's last but one match of the 72-game league as defensive champions Chennai Super Kings sneaked through while Royal Challengers Bangalore were stunned by unfancied Deccan Chargers.

Table-toppers Delhi Daredevils will take on number 1 Kolkata Knight Riders in the 1st play-off in Pune on Tuesday, with the winner advancing to the May 27 final in Chennai. The Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, the 3rd and 4th teams in the league, will face-off in Bangalore on Wednesday with the scum being knocked out of the race The loser of the 1st play-off will then meet the winner of the 2nd in Chennai on Friday to determine the 2nd finalist.

The play-off system rewards constancy over seven weeks, said IPL chairman Raj Shukla. One bad day in the office does not ruin a team's chances. The winner of Sunday's name clash at the Chidambaram stadium in Chennai will pocket $2 million and the runner-up will get $1.5 million. The 3rd-placed team will get a direct entry into the Champions League to be held in India in October among the top domestic Twenty20 clubs from about the world.

Delhi Daredevils, led by Sehwag and featuring Sri Lankan veteran Jayewardene and South African fast bowler Morne Morkel, have shown consistent form by winning 11 of their 16 league matches. But the Knight Riders will fancy their chances on a slow Pune wicket ideal for their West Indies Sunil Narine, whose haul of 22 wickets this season is 2nd only to Morkel's tally of 25.

You can't predict what will happen in a T20 game, but we have faith in ourselves, said Knight Riders skipper Gautam Gambhir. We want to succeed this one for the people of Kolkata. Mumbai Indians, featuring the inspiring Sachin Tendulkar, bounced back after a shaky start to end 3rd and set up an intriguing clash against India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings.

We must not waste the s2nd life given to us, said Dhoni. We must execute our plans well as Mumbai will come hard at us. Among a series of scandals to hit the match has been police charges against Australian Luke Pomersbach, who played for the Royal Challengers Bangalore, over supposedly molest a woman and beating up her fiancé.

5 Indian players signed to IPL teams were also suspended after an undercover TV report alleged they were ready to take money for spot-fixing.

Gambhir and Balaji set up KKR Win the 1 st Match

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.

Delhi DareDevils Win the match by 8 wickets

KOLKATA: Disciplined bowling and Irfan Pathan’s brief blitzkrieg take Delhi Daredevils to an 8-wicket succeed over Kolkata Knight Riders in a rain-curtailed 5th IPL match Eden Gardens stadium here, on Thursday.

The match was late by a couple of hours due to a strong shower, which abate just in time to press in a 12 overs-a side game, and appease a patient crowd that had stuck around during the downpour. Delhi chosen to field and directly made inroads into KKR’s batting card, as Morne Morkel’s Yorkers and Umesh Yadav’s control skittled out the batters restrict the host to 97. The sub-hundred total appear to be woefully short of being a spirited one and Delhi look set to gain limit points once their opening pair of Aaron Finch and Virender Sehwag added 49 in 6.2 overs.

Finch was bowled tiresome to craft room on the offside to Kallis. Sehwag, who had faced just 12 of the 1st 42 delivery, followed Finch back into the tent quickly after, mis-hitting a slower ball from Rajat Bhatia to long-on, where he was caught by an fit Iqbal Abdulla. Delhi needed 41 off 28 balls then and a tight phase, administer by Bhatia and Kallis elevated the requisite to 35 in 20 balls, with Irfan Pathan and Glenn Maxwell in the center. It can have gone also way from that point, but Pathan provides the pivot around which the scenario changed decisively.

The burly all-rounder hocked a 6 off Kallis and, in the next over — the 10th of the innings — flat-batted South Africa bowler Merchant de Lange with impunity for 2 more sixes. 17 were taken from de Lange’s over as Delhi brought down its task to 11 from 12 balls. Pathan finished things off with a flick four off Bhatia, ending with an unbeaten 42 (20b, 2x4, 3x6), as Delhi romped home with 5 balls to spare. Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders survive a cascade of wickets to stutter to 97 in its quota of 12 overs. Sehwag’s credence that chasing would be easier in a abridged game was correct even before Delhi began to bat as KKR misshapen in a mass to begin the opening session.

Brendon McCollum started in his usual haste with a couple of savagely-struck fours, but was trapped in front difficult to swing Roe of van der Merwe to the on-side — the fullness of the delivery causing the dismissal. Morkel steamed in and hit his pace right away. He dismiss 2 key batsmen in his 1st over, rattle in succeeding balls the furniture behind Kallis and Manoj Tiwary - the former succumb to an attempted flick, the latter to a suspicious plod.

Yusuf Pathan, the constantly unfulfilling danger man, was wedged behind off Umesh Yadav in the fourth over, leaving KKR tottering on 31, 4 wickets down. Yadav dropped Debrata Das in the deep, and the Bengal batsman made the ‘life’ count for 2 sixes – one each of Morkel and Maxwell. Morkel claim one more victim when KKR captain Gautam Gambhir played on and KKR’s misery was compounded on the next ball as Das, with Laxmi Ratan Shukla for companionship, ran himself out in a comedy of errors.

The host continual to lose regular wickets, and it take Shukla’s neat little 17-ball 26 to bring concerning the 97 total, which was by no means going to test something even as non-intimidating as Delhi’s batting line-up.

Morkel (3 for 18) and Yadav (2 for 9) were the pick of Delhi’s bowlers.

Today{06-04-12}Match

Mumbai v Pune (16:00 local | 10:30 GMT)

Rajasthan v Punjab (20:00 local | 14:30 GMT)

Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders new beginning

Kolkata: Delhi Daredevils and Kolkata Knight Riders - two sides yet to reach the Indian Premier League clash at the Eden Gardens on Thursday, eyeing a good opening to their campaign in the 5th year IPL of the cash-rich league on the right note.

Dashing batsman Virender Sehwag, who is having his 2nd innings as Daredevils captain, would be hopeful the team would better its lackluster performance in the previous 2 years of the IPL when it bent out in the group league stage. The Delhi franchisee made it to the semi-finals in the tournament's 1st 2 chapters.

 The KKR, now led by the formidable Gautam Gambhir - a former Delhi Daredevils captain - have in their ranks several stars include the hard hitting New Zealand starter Brendon McCullum, Australian speed bowler Brett Lee, all-rounder Bangladesh Shakib Al Hasan and West Indies off spinner Sunil Narine, famous South African batsman Kallis and attacking willower Yusuf Pathan.

Having made hasty exits from the group stage in the 1st 3 editions of the league, the Shah Rukh Khan owned KKR made it to the semi-finals last year, and are aim to improve the bar this time.Playing their lung-opener on home to of Eden Gardens, which local organizer Cricket society of Bengal hope would see a footfall of around 50,000, the Knights have high hope from their 2new recruits Narine and McCullum, while Merchant De Lange has an outside chance of creation it to the playing eleven.

 The Netherlands all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate, with his big thumping capabilities and utility medium pace, is also in the reckoning for a place in the last arrangement. The Daredevils are with no several of their front-line batsmen. Mahela Jayewardene of Sri Lanka, David Warner of Australia and England Kevin Petersen are busy serving their national teams, while volatile New Zealander Ross Taylor is treatment a broken hand.

Apart from Sehwag, Andre Russell of West Indies could be a support of the Daredevils, who have a dreadful pace attack, led by Morne Morkel, with Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron capable of difficult the Knight's strong batting line up.