IPL-3 : BANGALORE BEAT KOLKATTA

April 11th, 2010 by Ravi Matah | Posted in Sports   Comments Off on IPL-3 : BANGALORE BEAT KOLKATTA
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Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Kolkatta Knight Riders by seven wickets in a thrillling encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium Bangalore on Saturday. Rahul Dravid and Uthappa slammed half centuries to ensure a victory over Kolkatta by seven wickets. Anil Kumble won the toss and elected to field. The Kolkatta Knight Riders reached to 61 runs in the six overs. 

Ganguly and Chris Gayle hammered Praveen Kumar to 21 runs in the fifth over itself. Dale Steyn, despite the speed which he is able to generate, he was also not accurate in his bowling and both openers gave a good start to Kolkatta. 

Robin Uthappa

Brendon McCullum (45), Chris Gayle (34) and Sourav Ganguly (33) batted very well for Kolkata but the rest of the batsmen failed to produce any partnerships. 

At one stage Kolkatta were appearing to cross 180 plus in this innings but accurate bowling by Bangalore bowlers in the middle overs got three quick wickets to halt their flow of runs. Ganguly failed to read a slow ball from Vinay and was caught at square leg for 33. Manoj Tewary slashed one to point and was caught White off Kallis for 0. 

Angelow Mathews was also out soon thereafter caught by Taylor bowled Vinay for 1. Cheteshwar Pujara took Kolkata to some respectability with two huge sixes off Kallis in the penultimate over after Kolkata’s openers had played the foundation building act. 

McMullum played a defiant knock and was not perturbed by the loss of wickets at the other end. He slammed 45 runs and was caught Vinay bowled Kumble for 45 runs. 

Kolkata Knight Riders wound up after scoring 160 for 9 with McCullum 45 and  Gayle 34 giving the main contribution. 

A splended half-century from Rahul Dravid in their seven-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders placed RCB to the  second place in the points table. Dravid found the gaps with precision and also hit two sixes off Ajit Agarkar. Sriram scored 27 runs in the company of Dravid at the crease.

Bangalore had a small total of 161 for victory and they achieved it with almost three overs to spare. Bangalore fought back with mighty contribution from Robin Uthappa who perhaps played his carreer best knock today in a T20 match. During his batting sixes were flying all over the ground and in the 17th over they required 24 in the available 4 overs. 

Taylor slammed a six and Uthappa had no patience either and plundered sixes and fours at will and a reverse flick six over the point boundry was the best shot of the tournament. Uthappa slammed 52 runs off 22 balls. 

Uthappa and Ross Taylor (14 not out) produced a quickfire 62 runs in just 23 balls. 

Only 1 run was required off the 18th over and Taylor hit the victory boundry. 

Paceman R Vinay Kumar (3/23) did well for Bangalore by striking regularly which turned the tide in the favour of his side. Kallis took 2 wickets for 31 runs. 

Sourav Ganguly and company had all the opportunities to make a huge score but they squandered away their opportunities. With this win Royal Challangers Bangalore are at the second place of the points table. 

The Indian cricket team for the World ICC T20 has been announced and it is surprising that Robin Uthappa has not been included. 

The award for the maximun sixes went to Robin Uthappa. 

The award for the Karbonn Kamaal Catch went to Anil Kumble – (it was the catch in which he dismissed Ganguly). 

The Man of the Match was awarded to Vinay Kumar.

Ravi Matah.

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