Sun, 17 Apr 2011 - IP Kolkata vs IP Rajasthan, IPL 2011, 17th Match - Bulletin

Clinical Kolkata script home victory

Rejuvenated Kolkata’s IPL, 2011 campaign is going from strength to strength as they put up a spirited all-round performance to score a hat-trick of wins this season. Gautam Gambhir led side seems to have forgotten three previous torrid seasons and are on a mission to give their best shot at the title this time.

Rajasthan proved to be no match for Kolkata at Eden Gardens as latter scored a thumping eight wicket victory against them at Eden Gardens to go to top of the IPL standings. The Kolkata victory comes after it had beaten Rajasthan in Jaipur two days ago and ending chances of visiting team taking revenge of Friday’s defeat.

With just a meager 81 to defend, Rajasthan bowlers did try all the tricks in their bag to stop Kolkata from getting to the total. And, they did start with a bang as Shaun Tait’s well directed short ball had champion all-rounder Jacques Kallis miscuing a pull shot to depart without anything on the board.

Shane Warne did bring about bowling changes but to no avail as skipper Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary made sure there were no hiccups in the chase after having Manvinder Bisla caught at short mid-wicket with score reading at 31.

Skipper and young Tiwary nudged, dabbed and weathered the Warne’s brilliant spell of leg spin to put chase on track with Tiwary exploded in one Tait over to complete the clinical win in 14th over.

Gambhir had another good knock while chasing remaining undefeated on run a ball 35 while Tiwary scored a brisk 26-ball 30 including a shot of the innings when batsmen sliced a pacy delivery off Tait for a six over point.

Rajasthan, after sent into bat by Gambhir, showed no fight to produce one of the dismal performances with the bat in the IPL as they were folded for a paltry 81. Rajasthan lost last five for just 3 runs to recede from 78 for five to 81 all-out runs with Laxmipathy Balaji, Shaqibul Hassan and Brett Lee combining together to remove the lower order in a blink.

The appalling batting display was result of well thought out bowling performance by Kolkata bowlers, reckless batting and some senseless running between the wickets. Such was the domination of the ball over the bat on batting friendly conditions that only four batsmen could reach to double figures and none of them was able to play long innings.

With senior batsmen Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha not playing due to injuries, most of the batsmen, youngsters in particular, looked confused and fidgety at the crease and gave away their wickets cheaply, while Kolkata had a plenty of tricks and plans to bowl out Rajasthan inside 16th over. None of the Kolkata bowlers went for more than six runs per over as they got wickets regularly to hit hard Rajasthan with Laxmipathy Balaji and Shaqibul Hassan getting three and two wickets respectively.

It all started with a peach of a delivery from Balaji, best bowler on the view taking three wickets for 15 in his three, to disturb off stump of Shane Watson as ball after pitching on the middle stump moved a shade away to hit the off-bail. The slide started as batsmen couldn’t apply themselves to succumb to some quality bowling well backed by their fielders.

Young left arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla got into the act to have Paunikar stumped and showed his fielding skills to run-out Faiz Fazal at the non-striker’s end while bowling when latter tried to go for a run which was never there. It was followed by another needless search for a run which resulted in run-out of Abhishek Raut thanks to nifty effort from Shaqibul and wicketkeeper Manvinder Bisla.

There was a mini-recovery though in the shape of fifth wicket partnership of 24 runs between Ross Taylor and Ashok Menaria but Yusuf Pathan ended it having Taylor stumped for six runs. Menaria did hit a six and four to give some tonic to the limping innings but Balaji removed him and Ajinkya Rahane, in his comeback spell, to end all the hopes of Rajasthan making a recovery.

Shaqibul joined the party to get two wickets off successive deliveries but missed the hat-trick only for Brett Lee to castle Siddharth Trivedi to complete miserable Rajasthan’s evening with the bat.