Mon, 11 Apr 2011 - IP Kolkata vs IP Hyderabad, IPL 2011, 6th Match - Bulletin

Kolkata comeback with an impressive win

Kolkata put all three facets of game together to score an impressive 16 run victory over Hyderabad who couldn’t seize on their moments and had to taste defeat again second time running after losing the first game.

After put up a decent total on a turning pitch where stroke-making was very difficult, bowlers led by young left arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah and seasoned domestic cricketer Rajat Bhatia to start on a winning note on their home ground.

Hyderabad real chance to have a real dash at the target when Daniel Christian hit some big shots but progress was punctured when Iqbal had Australian caught brilliantly in the deep by Ryan Ten Doeschate.

There was a buzz around in the field as Kolkata fielders put their everything to save runs and a good show in the field culminated with South African Jacques Kallis who hit a classy fifty during batting taking four catches in the outfield

Iqbal was the pick of the bowlers putting the Hyderabad chase in tatters as he got wicket in his first over while opening the bowling and it was followed with Eoin Morgan’s terrific piece of Fielding that ran out Shekhar Dhawan.

Things were made worse when Hyderabad’s skipper and best batsman Kumar Sangakkara clipped one in the air to be caught at the square. Young Chipli showed some heart as he cracked some terrific strokes and cleared the boundary once to keep

Hyderabad ship floating. His gutsy knock was however ended by Bhatia and was unfortunate to miss out on his fifty by 2 runs.

Christian scored a quick 25 off 13 to put chase on track but once he was gone Kolkata kept their nerves to fashion out an impressive infront of the home crowd.

Iqbal Abdullah took three wickets for 24 in his four overs while Bhatia conceded 29 runs and claimed two wickets in his allotted four overs.

Earlier, a classy fifty from South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis and solid contribution from middle order helped Kolkata to a big total. Gautam Gambhir who decided to bat his customary number three, Manoj Tiwary and Yusuf Pathan played breezy cameos to make sure good start given by openers wasn’t wasted.

All the Kolkata batsmen timed the ball sweetly on Eden Garden pitch that offered lot of turn to the Hyderabad spinners. Kallis showed his class by playing some gorgeous strokes to score at a brisk rate combining with Manvinder Bisla to put 51 for the opening stand. Bisla looked very impressive during his 21-ball 19 hitting three crisp boundaries before trapped leg before by leg spinner Amit Sharma.

Kallis, as usual, didn’t do anything silly and threaded the field with all the ease in the world. He collected singles and doubles with the precision and hit the boundaries by concentrating on timing the ball rather than belting it hard. He completed his fifty by depositing his South African teammate JP Dumminy to mid-wicket boundary but part-time off-spinner has his revenge next ball by having man holed out in the deep for 53.

With Kallis’s departure and spinners bowling run rate was slackened a bit by Hyderabad but for a brief period only as Gambhir and Tiwary unleashed a mixture of deft batting and some lusty hitting. Three of Gambhir’s four boundaries in his 29 were hit square of the wicket on off-side as an error in length or line was enough for him to find gaps.

Local boy Tiwary was brutal hitting two sixes of one Dumminy to give Kolkata batting a kind of tonic it needed and ran hard between the wickets. He had another useful partnership with Yusuf Pathan to add a quick-fire 30 runs to surge the team total to 163 runs.

Pathan struggled to get big shot away but hit important four boundaries in his 22 off 15 balls before getting out to last ball of the match.

Mishra made most of the turning pitch beating the batsmen on more than one occasion and kept them quiet for major portion of his spell. He had match figures of 2 for 19 in his four but his spin mate Pragyan Ojha despite turning the ball sharply was unlucky not to be amongst the wickets.