KKR Hopes Still alive in CLT-20

Kolkata Knight Riders stayed alive in the tournament with a show of desperation in the field, accuracy with the ball, and aggression with the bat. With rain lurking in the background, the Knight Riders won the crucial toss but had to deal with an aggressive start from Colin Ingram and JJ Smuts. However, led by Brett Lee and Jacques Kallis with the ball, they fielded superbly to allow only 67 runs in the last nine overs. Lee went for just 25 off his four overs, including nine runs off the 17th and 19th overs.

The sub-par total of 155 was always going to take some defending on a skidding surface flanked by short boundaries and a damp outfield. And with the in-form Kallis and Gautam Gambhir, and Manvinder Bisla playing some scintillating shots, it seemed like the Warriors would need outside intervention. It arrived, in the form of rain, but by then nine overs had been bowled and the Knight Riders were 22 ahead of the par score. That not only brought the Knight Riders, who have now played all their league matches, two points, but also a boost in their net run-rate.

The game was won and lost in the last nine overs of the Warriors innings. Ingram, through some stylish aerial hitting, and JJ Smuts, through muscular blows, had put Warriors on course for a defendable total. But both efforts needed finishing touches, which never came.

JJ Smuts tried to power his way through at the start, and in spite of all his efforts managed a strike-rate of just 106.97 during his 46. He played 17 dot balls. It is usually difficult to argue against an innings of 61 off 47, but tonight there were elements of Ingram's game that weren't up to scratch. He missed out on converting ones into twos, running the first one slowly despite having hit slightly wide of the fielders. He let Shakib Al Hasan get away with a few full tosses. Towards the end he struggled to accelerate. At one stage he wanted to walk off even after edging Lee short of the keeper, only to be asked to come back. He scored two couples, and his last 14 deliveries brought him 11 runs.

Ideally Ingram would have wanted to kick on after his impressive start. He began with sixes off Kallis, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib. The third of those made its way to the press box, on the third floor at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. It was going swimmingly for Warriors then: that six took the score to 77 for 1 in the 10th over, with two set batsmen looking to launch.

Both batsmen hit a boundary each in the next over, but in the following overs they got stuck. Ingram hit three full tosses for ones, JJ Smuts toe-ended a short ball to mid-off, and with a new batsman at the crease the Knight Riders sneaked in a few quiet overs. Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary and Lee were electric in the outfield to assist their bowlers.

Kallis came back in the 16th over with 28 scored off the preceding four overs, and turned the screws further. Just four came off his accurate over, and Lee followed it up with wide yorkers to concede just five off the 17th. Mark Bouhcer scooped his good friend Jacques Kallis for back-to-back fours to take Warriors to a fighting total, but soon followed it up by dropping Kallis.

In the form that he is in, you don't drop Kallis. Boucher's good high catch to send Bisla back was hardly amends. Both batsmen had hit a six each by then, and the Knight Riders had raced away to 35 in the fourth over. That wicket was followed up by a misfield that allowed Gambhir to get going with a four through mid-off. Kallis and Gambhir proceeded to loot 42 off the next five overs, matching each other short for shot. Gambhir was dropped too, when Kelly Smuts couldn't hold on to a high catch at deep cover. That mistake capped off an unsatisfactory night for the Warriors in every department.

KKR's First Win in CLT T20

Kolkata Knight Riders 171 for 1 (Kallis 64*, Gambhir 55*) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 169 for 9 (Vettori 44, Bhatkal 25) by nine wickets

Kolkata Knight Riders bounced back to inflict a comprehensive defeat on Royal Challengers Bangalore and keep their own hopes alive in the Champions League while making survival difficult for their opponents. A delightful cameo from the home captain, Daniel Vettori, seemed to have set up a close encounter, but the Knight Riders dominated the chase, reminding the Royal Challengers top order of what they should have done with the bat on a good pitch.Brad Haddin, replacing Shakib Al Hasan, did full justice to his role by delivering a flier at the start while Kallis anchored the reply with support from Gautam GamBhir.

The Knight Riders were left angered and frustrated by Vettori's crafty batting at the death in the Royal Challengers' innings, but didn't let that affect them in the chase. A spate of misfields and fumbles drew ire from Gambhir, but the batting was calm and clinical in its approach. Haddin gave the initial push by stepping up in the second over to smack the left-arm seamer S Aravind, who's won a call-up to the India squad for the ODIs against England, for three consecutive fours as the bowler struggled with his line.

Haddin's approach came with risks but it wasn't mindless aggression. He used his feet well against spin, charging out to J Syed Mohammad and dispatching him over long-on, and waiting patiently for Vettori to slip in a bad ball - and he did - before punishing it past point. He was unforgiving against a clutter of length deliveries from a struggling Aravind, carving them for sixes over midwicket and the bowler's head, interspersed by a slog for a four. When he fell with the score on 62 in the eighth over, the platform had been laid.

The rest of the innings seemed meticulously planned. Kallis ceded the floor to Gambhi after launching a six over long-on early in the innings, and the Knight Riders captain played his role superbly. The Royal Challengers had faltered in the field in their previous defeat, and a half-chance that went down was perhaps the one big opportunity they had of a comeback. Saurabh Tiwary failed to latch on to a catch from Gambhir at the long-off boundary, lost his balance and crashed into his coach in the dugout. Gambhir was on 2 then.

As the field spread out, plenty of singles were on offer and the pair rotated the strike comfortably, the required rate in control all through. The timely bursts were provided by Gambhir, who hammered Syed to the straight boundary and past point and clipped an off-the-mark Dirk Nannes past short fine leg. The Royal Challengers didn't help their cause by doling out extra runs, either by way of overthrows or wides. Nannes was singled out for punishment in the final surge, Kallis reaching his fifty, albeit with a streaky bottom edge, while Gambhir smashed him for two massive sixes over long-on and square leg. That over, the 16th, fetched 24, the win was completed shortly after.

A spirited performance from the Knight Riders bowlers had given them the advantage for 14 overs of the hosts' innings, the early assault from Chris Gayle being the only highlight with the bat until then. Kallis' stirring reply after being hit for six - a yorker that knocked out Gayle's leg stump - backed up by Brett Lee's extra bounce that dislodged Virat Kohli, made up for the early damage.

The Royal Challengers didn't make use of their line-up's depth, losing wickets after their batsmen got partnerships going, holing out needlessly while an uncharacteristically quiet Tilakaratne Dilshan was stumped smartly by Haddin. With his sly shuffles to the off and the use of those powerful wrists, Vettori, kept company by Syed and Raju Bhatkal, sparked a recovery that left the hosts with the momentum at the end of the innings. It would not be with them for long.

After the game, Gautam Gambhir was fined $3000 while the rest of the the Knight Riders were fined $1500 per player for being two overs behind the required over rate. The penalty for a slow over rate is $1500 per over for the captain and $750 per over for each of the other players in the starting XI.