Wed, 20 Apr 2011 - IP Kolkata vs IP Kochi, IPL 2011, 22nd Match - Bulletin

Kochi halt Kolkata’s winning march

Kochi bowlers made most of the Eden Gardens track that was difficult for the stroke making to defend a low score of 132 runs thanks to clinical bowling performance. With Kolkata’s string and deep batting lineup in the mind, a target of 133 was expected to be hauled by Kolkata easily but Kochi’s all-round display with ball and their effort in the field to take crucial catches and save runs handed a 6-run defeat to Kolkata.

In their first IPL season, Kochi have scored a hat trick of victories and halted a three match winning streak of Kolkata to throw tournament wide open with Mumbai, Kolkata and Kochi having three wins each.

Fast bowlers RP Singh and Vinay Kumar and spin trio of Muthaih Muralitharan, Ruvindu Jadeja and Romesh Powar were all impressive to make look a small target a mountain. Kolkata were dented early in the chase with Kumar accounting for Jacques Kallis and Singh bowling a scorching yorker to have Kolkata skipper’s stumped rattled. Jadeja added to the Kolkata woes by castling Manvinder Bisla to put chase in tatters as score read 37 for 3 in six overs at that moment.

There was mini recovery though as Manish Tiwary and Eoin Morgan combined together to bring some stability to the chase with a 36 run partnership. All that was undone by a superb piece of fielding at mid-wicket to find Morgan short of the non-striker’s end as Singh repeated the yorker show to send Shaqibul Hassan back to the pavilion end.

With Kolkata reeling and required run rate mounting all the time, Tiwary decided that it was time for a move on but lost Yusuf Pathan to make chase even more difficult.

Mahela’s captaincy was spot on ringing in some inspirational bowling changes and having fielders at the right places for right men and he was rewarded for his leadership skills with Jadeja speeding one outside leg stump to remove Tiwary thanks to a nifty piece of glovework by Parthiv Patel. Tiwary’ departure, who scored a 51 ball 46 with two fours and as many sixes, meant there was no regular batsmen at the crease and what was needed a solid cameo from some lower order batsmen but it didn’t happen resulting in a Kochi victory.

There was a terrific display of variations of pace with Vinay and Singh bowling well disguised slower ones not to let batsmen getting used to a monotonous stuff and the exhibition of yorkers from Singh was simply brilliant to watch but not for Gambhir and company though.

Put into bat, Kochi opening pair of Brendon McCullum and Mahela Jayawardene was off to a rapid start with former hitting two fours and a six in Brett Lee’s second over to express his intentions. Mahela, on the other hand, started with his trademark copy book style shots to put Kolkata under pressure early.

With pitch offering some help to spinners, their introduction into the tack not only put a lid on the scoring rate but also wickets fell in a cluster to peg Kochi back. Yusuf Pathan claimed three wickets and Shaqibul Hassan had a wicket to his name to reduce Kochi to 65 for 4 from a strong position when score was 49 without any loss.

Batsmen had no idea how to combat turning balls as Pathan accounted for Mahela, Parthiv Patel and Brad Hodge to rip through Kochi top order having two of them leg before the wicket and Hodge clean bowled. It was Shaqibul though who gave Kolkata first breakthrough with McCullum caught at cover point for a 19-ball 23.

With bowlers, spinners in particular, on the top, run rate dipped down and it needed a blitz from Ruvindu Jadeja to boost the Kochi total. The young left hander hit three massive sixes and a four in his crucial 29 that came off just 18 balls. His love for big sixes turned out to be his undoing as he was caught at long-on when he tried to hit Bret Lee for a big one.

His dismissal had a telling effect on the run rate as Kolkata bowlers strangulated Kochi lower order batsmen to limit them to 132 runs. All three spinners had excellent figures with Pathan having returns of 3 for 20 in his four overs and Shaqibul conceded 28 runs in his four overs claiming three wickets also.