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Knight Riders goes out with a bang

S. Sabanayakan

Ganguly smashes 86 off 53 balls to clinch the match for the host

Knight Riders finished on 13 points from 14 games
Kings XI in on 18 with one game to go

— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury

In vain: Kumar Sangakkara’s knock was overshadowed by Sourav Ganguly’s innings.

KOLKATA: It was an honourable exit for Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens here on Sunday. The home team, down 106 for six at one stage, recovered to win its last game against Kings XI Punjab by three wickets with three balls to spare in the DLF Indian Premier League match. Skipper Sourav Ganguly was instrumental in earning his team with a blistering 86 off 53 balls with the aid of six boundaries and as many sixes.

When all looked lost for the Knight Riders, two partnerships came to the fore in changing the complexion of the game. A 49-run for the seventh wicket between Ganguly and Gul (24, 11b, 1x4, 3x6) and a 20-run for the unbroken eighth wicket between Ganguly and Ishant Sharma in seven balls made all the difference.

Knight Riders ended the campaign on winning note reaching 13 points from 14 games while Kings XI stayed on 18 from 13 games.

Big ask

Set a target of 175 runs with an asking rate of 8.75 per over, Knight Riders’ batting showed the usual brittleness after Ganguly and Salman Butt gave the team a more than brisk start. The first wicket association of 45 runs in 5.2 overs was the best of the innings. Once Butt left taken by Tanmay Srivastava off Sreesanth for 24 (19b, 5x4), the leading wicket taker of the tournament dismissed Debabrata Das in the next ball to be on hat-trick.

David Hussey denied the Kerala pacer the rare feat but did not lost long. When on 12, he stepped out to lift leg-spinner Piyush Chawla but was beaten by the flight and was bowled.

Laxmi Ratan Shukla came and went. Unbeaten on 26, Ganguly was joined by Wriddhiman Saha and the two added 32 runs for the fifth wicket.

Challenging total

Earlier, powered by a superb 64 by Kumar Sangakkaran and a fine 40 by Shaun Marsh enabled Kings XI Punjab to put up a challenging total of 174 for six in 20 overs.

Despite Umar Gul’s best bowling figures of four for 23 in this tournament, Kings XI made sure it gathered the highest total on this ground by any side, which was later surpassed by the Knight Riders’ winning total. The previous best was 149 for five by the home side against Chennai Super Kings, the match eventually getting washed out.

Yuvraj Singh won the toss and decided to bat first on what looked like a good batting track. Marsh and James Hopes began well but it was Hopes who was aggressive and took Ishant Sharma to task in his first over. After change of ends, Umar Gul came on from the pavilion end and immediately tasted success trapping Hopes leg before for 13.

The scores:

Kings XI Punjab: S. Marsh c Chopra b Mendis 40, J. Hopes lbw b Gul 13, K. Sangakkara lbw b Gul 64, Y. Singh (run out) 27, M. Jayawardene (not out) 11, I. Pathan b Gul 7, P. Chawla b Gul 0, T. Sriavastva (not out) 1; Extras (lb-1, w-10): 11. Total (for six in 20 overs): 174.

Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-107, 3-133, 4-164, 5-173, 6-173.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowling: Gul 4-0-23-4, Sharma 4-0-49-0, Mendis 4-0-24-1, Dinda 2-0-18-0, Hussey 4-0-36-0, Shukla 2-0-23-0.

Kolkata Knight Riders: S. Butt c Srivastava b Sreesanth 24, S. Ganguly (not out) 86, D. Das lbw b Sreesanth 0, D. Hussey b Chawla 12, L.R. Shukla b VRV Singh 5, W. Saha c Pathan b Chawla 13, A. Chopra c Sangakkara b Hopes 2, U. Gul c Power b VRV Singh 24, I. Sharma (not out) 0; Extras (lb-5, w-4): 9. Total (for seven in 19.4 overs): 175.

Fall of wickets: 1-45, 2-45, 3-62, 4-70, 5-102, 6-106, 7-155.

Kings XI bowling: Pathan 3.4-0-36-0, Sreesanth 4-0-33-2, Powar 2-0-14-0, VRV Singh 4-0-28-2, Chawla 4-0-36-2, Hopes 2-0-23-1.

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