IPL5: Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders – Live Scores and Match Update – Knight Riders set up 166–run chase for Royal Challengers
The Kolkata Knight Riders went up against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 10th match of the Indian Premier League 5 at the latter’s home today on April 10 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, and set their opponents a target of 166 to chase.
Bangalore skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss and elected to field first. Kolkata kick-started their innings with South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis (22) and skipper Gautam Gambhir (64). The duo charged forward at a run-rate hovering around 10 per
over, before Kallis was caught behind by his national team-mate, AB de Villiers, off Vettori.
The score stood at 60 for 1 down in 6.2 overs when Manvinder Bisla (46) took the crease. His partnership with the captain got their side up to 125 by the 14th over, but was cut short with Bisla’s dismissal at the hands of spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan.
The skipper looked to be going strong, having scored 64 off 39, but his efforts were cut short by Zaheer Khan – he attempted to reverse paddle with the back of the bat, but was caught at short third man in the 17th over.
The rest of the batting order put forth a shocking display, with the remaining wickets falling like dominoes. Yusuf Pathan (1), Manoj Tiwary (2), Ryan ten Doeschate (3), Shakib Al Hasan (4), and Laxmi Shukla (5) all giving their wickets away without so much
as a fight. Windies spinner Sunil Narine and ace Kiwi batsman Brendon McCullum had been left out of the playing XI for today’s match, and substituted with Shakib al Hasan and ten Doeschate, so the performances of the last two players were particularly disappointing.
Tail-enders Brett Lee (8) and Rajat Bhatia (4) stepped up to the crease with heavy responsibility on their shoulder, but with the last over almost complete, there wasn’t much they could do. The Knight Riders reached 165 by the end of their innings, at the
expense of 8 wickets.
Zaheer Khan (4-0-31-2), Vinay Kumar (4-0-18-2), and Muralitharan (4-0-31-2) all came through for their side in a big way, and while they slipped up a little by allowing the top order some room to settle, went on to put forth a ruthless display as far as
the middle and lower order batsmen were concerned.
A 166 target may seem an easy goal to the Royal Challengers as they welcome the formidable Chris Gayle back to their batting order. The hard-hitting Windies batsman sat out the last match owing to injury, but is likely to boost his team’s innings in a big
way today.
While changes in the batting line-up did not do the Knight Riders much good, it remains to be seen whether the substitution of wicketkeeper Debabrata Das with Manvinder Bisla, and the replacement of Iqbal Abdulla with medium pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji has
any effect on the team’s performance.
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