Riding on a gutsy 40 by Chris Gayle and unbeaten 35-ball 44 by MN van Wyk, Kolkata Knight Riders survived some mid-innings scare to post 139 for 6 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match today.
Riding on a gutsy 40 by Chris Gayle and unbeaten 35-ball 44 by MN van Wyk, Kolkata Knight Riders survived some mid-innings scare to post 139 for 6 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League match today.
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Gayle, who held his nerve and kept hammering the opponent bowlers hard during the 37-ball innings while his partners kept changing on other side of the crease, helped his side overcome the early jolts received.
The West Indian put up some delectable strokeplays and smote the ball into the fence on six occasions, before Shreevats Goswami ran behind to pouch a spectacular catch near the fence in the 12th over off KP Appanna.
Earlier, Bangalore skipper Kevin Pietersen decided to share the new ball with spinner RE van der Merwe and his vagary paid dividend as the Kolkata team suffered a huge blow when skipper Brandon McCullum departed with a golden duck in the very first delivery of the match.
McCullum tried to start on an attacking note but his ambitious cut off Pietersen found Virat Kohli in backward point as the latter pouched a well-judged catch.
Brad Hodge then joined opener Chris Gayle out on the middle before Anil Kumble struck in the sixth over, just when the duo were struggling to repair the innings.
Kumble sent packing Hodge (17 off 15) who failed to make out a drifting delivery off the former India skipper which found the Australian's leg in front of the sticks.
Ganguly (1) disappointed when his team was expecting a timely knock from the left-hander who went after Praveen Kumar before his lofted shot landed on safe hand of South African Jaques Kallis.
However, South African Wyk and Wridhiman Saha stitched up a crucial 40-run partnership when the Kolkata side was struggling on 70 for 4 following the departure of Gayle.
An experienced Kumble broke the partnership when he dismissed Saha on 21, which he made off 14 balls and with the help of one sixer, as Pietersen took an easy catch on the 17th over.
It was a good show on the bowlers' part as dismissals in regular intervals stopped the Kolkata team from making a big score in the match.
For Bangalore team, Kumble managed two wickets for just 16 runs while Pietersen and Merwe managed one each. Praveen Kumar and KP Appanna also bagged one wicket each.
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