Kolkata Knight Riders vs. Kings XI Punjab - First Innings Report
The 37th match of the ongoing fourth season of the IPL (Indian Premier League) was yet again a thriller which did not leave the spectators bored. Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Punjab-c833 were up against each other at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
Playing in front of home crowd, the Knight Riders were expected to give their best against a well gelled Kings XI Punjab. On paper, both teams looked phenomenal and there was no easy way to distinguish between the two. If Punjab had http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 as a batsman
to be feared from, Kolkata had Jacques Kallis on their side, a worthy opponent to Gilchrist.
After winning the toss, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gautam-Gambhir-c58623, the skipper of Kolkata chose to put the opposition into bat on a spinner’s track, hoping to make early inroads into Punjab's batting.
The batting side began the innings with openers Gilly and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Paul-Valthaty-c2170, who tentatively started the innings on a track that was doing a bit too much for the spinners than was expected earlier. It took only five overs for the KKR to get a breakthrough as
Valthaty gave an easy catch to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Manoj-Tiwary-c1890 at long-on off a delivery bowled by Yusuf Pathan.
In the next over, Punjab suffered another casualty as Shaun Marsh was run out after scoring just five runs, consequence of a fumble between him and Gilchrist. This was a disastrous start for the Kings XI Punjab, but as long as Gilchrist was on the crease,
Punjab had a chance to post a formidable total on the board.
However, Punjab just couldn’t stop wickets from falling as another wicket fell on the last delivery of the eighth over and this time it was the wicket which the Punjab fans did not want to see fall. Gilchrist was cleaned bowled off the bowling of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Iqbal-Abdulla-c1596,
after the Batsman scored 26 runs.
An over later, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dinesh-c54134 Karthik also lost his wicket by getting himself run-out. He scored 42 runs, and was the highest run-scorer from Punjab.
David Hussey managed to add 15 runs on the tally before he was adjudged leg-before wicket (lbw) on a delivery bowled by Abdulla.
In the end, Punjab could only make 119 runs, giving an easy target to the KKR to chase. Punjab clearly seemed to struggle against the spin and it will be now a test for the KKR batsmen to bat on a wicket which is clearly helping the spinners.
KKR pacers, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lakshmipathy-Balaji-c72130, remained wicket-less while spinner Yusuf Pathan took one wicket. Iqbal Abdulla was dangerous and economical at the same time as he took two wickets in his four overs, with an economy rate of 4.75.
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