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Dwayne Bravo led the Mumbai Indians in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar and after winning the toss at the Eden Gardens Kolkatta chose to bat on Monday. Mumbai batting first meant that Kolkatta cannot defeat Mumbai by a huge margin today as they will only have to chase the assigned target. 

As Mumbai made a mess of their batting in Sachin’s absence, they gave a target of only 134 to Kolkatta to win. It was a slow pitch in the Eden Gardens and Mumbai could only muster 133 runs for the loss of eight wickets. It was the grit and determination of Saurabh Tewary and Ambati Rayudu who brought Mumbai’s total to some element of respectability, if it can be called so. 

Saurabh Tewary made 46 runs off 37 balls and puctuated them with 4 fours and one six. Ambavati Rayudu made 27 runs of 15 balls and hit 3 fours and a a six. It appeared that Mumbai had fielded a ‘B’ grade team in this inconsequential match today.  (more…)

Kolkatta Knight Riders won the toss and elected to bat at the Eden Gardens, Kolkatta on Wednesday. Saurav Ganguly and Chris Gayle opened the innings and laid a decent foundation for the Kolkatta  score to read 181 for the loss of three wickets.

Ganguly’s half century was punctuated with 8 fours and a six and chris Gayle slammed 40 runs with 5 fours and a six. Ganguly was bowled by  Vittori and Gayle was bowled by Bhatia. Tewary was not out on 26 and Mathews contributed 46 not out. 

After 10 overs Kolkatta Knight Riders  were 88 for no loss and they  scored the 100 runs in 10.5 overs. Gayle hit most of his runs to the fine leg boundry and hit Collingwood for a towering six.  (more…)

A superb knock of 110 not out by Mahila Jayawardane saw Kings XI Punjab beat Kolkatta Knight Riders on Sunday. Jayawardane’s knock over-shadowed the knock of 88 runs scored by Chris Gayle earlier and beat the Kolkatta Knight Riders by 8 wickets.  Kolkatta Knight Riders, won the toss and chose to bat first against Kings XI Punjab at the Eden Gardens Kolkatta on Sunday. They opened the innings with Saurav Ganguly and Chris Gayle who made mince-meat of the Kings XI Punjab bowling.

Kolkatta Knight Riders were 100 in nine overs and Gayle started hitting more fluently thereafter. Gayle was initially batting slowly but played wonderfully well after the ten over mark. Gayle had milked Bopara for 33 runs in an over which is by far the most runs scored  in an over in the IPL. The opening partnership yielded 56 runs and it was then Ganguly got out  c & b Bopara for 36.  (more…)

Four centuries in the first innings by Sehwag, Sachin, Luxman and Dhoni gave India  a formidable 347  run first innings lead over South Africa at the Eden Gardens, Kolkatta.. In the second innings for S.A., it was only Hashim Amla who played a defiant knock of 123 not out. But apart from his performance, none of the other batsmen were able to withstand the jugglery of the spinning duo Harbhajan(5 for 59) and Mishra(3 for 78).

India’s main strike bowler Zaheer Khan was resting with a knee injury sustained yesterday and India were down to three bowlers. They still managed to pull off a miraculous victory with less than two mandatory overs to spare. Harbhajan Singh,bowled exceptionally well and took five wickets in South Africa’s second innings. (more…)