In the inaugural match of the IPL-3, Kolkatta Knight Riders beat Deccan Chargers by 11 runs at the Dr. D.Y.Patil Stadium at Mumbai. Adam Gilchrist won the toss and elected to field first and this decision was initially thought to be courageous as he had a good batting line-up and could have batted first but perhaps fielded first keeping the dew-factor in mind.
Chaminda Vaas bowled exceptionally well and took 2 KKR wickets in just 4 balls of his first over and the score card for KKR batting looked pathetic at 0-2. They had lost their first 4 wickets in quick succcesion and at that time it appeared that they would not reach even 100 runs.
But half-centuries each by Angelo Mathews and Owais Shah, who added 130 runs in less than 15 overs took Kolkata Knight Riders to a respected total. Good swing bowling, followed by adequate support and a last ditch effort to reach a fighting total was a relief to the spectators inside the Dr. D.Y.Patil stadium, Mumbai and for millions of cricket fans all over the world. They were otherwise absolutely bored by the pathetic opening ceremony which was managed without any proper planning and totallly lacked fanfare.
Thankfully, the match began with the class swing bowling of Chamunda Vaas on who was bang on target from the very first ball. Manoj Tiwary fell playing the first ball, and was caught at mid-wicket. KKR Captain Sourav Ganguly edged to second slip in that maiden over.Then Pujara and Brad Hodge too departed after a 31-run stand.
Pragyan Ojha and Andrew Symonds both bowled well. After 16 overs KKR were 103 for the loss of 4 wickets and then Mathews and Shah loosened up.
The young lad Jaskaran Singh bowled well in his first two overs sending down balls on perfect length and good swing bowling.
After 17 overs KKR were 121 for 4 and then T Suman bowled the 18th over and was punished by Mathews, who reached his fifty in that over. It gave the Kolkata bowlers with a target to bowl.
The Deccan Chargers started with a bang with Gilchrist and VVS luxman making 60 runs for the first wicket. But thereafter they lost wickets in quick succession and could muster only 60 runs from the last 10 overs for the loss of six wickets and managed to score 150 for 7 in the allotted 20 overs. For the Kolkatta Knight Riders Ishant Sharma got 1 wicket for 31 runs and Charl Langeveldt got 2 for 26 runs. Deccan Chargers lost the match by 11 runs. The Deccan Chargers were the winner of IPL season 2. During the presentation ceremony comments were sought from the winning and loosing captains and they said :
“We were in the box seat, great start with the ball and bat but we didn’t finish well. We panicked a little bit. It wasn’t smart cricket. It was gettable on that wicket, all credit to the Knight Riders,” said Gilchrist.
Ganguly said that “We were ordinary for the first ten overs in both innings but we pulled back in the last ten. We’ve got some improvements to make, fielding is an area. We dropped Adam twice and we were lucky to win from there. Owais and Mathews batted outstandingly to take us to 161.”
The award for hitting the maximum sixes went to Angelo Mathews. Surprisingly no Man of the match award was announced and this looked absurd.
Ravi Matah