Match Review of Kolkatta Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings

Indian Premier League
Date 7th May 2011
TeamsKolkatta Knight Riders vs Chennai Super Kings
Match no. 48
VenueEden Gardens, Kolkatta.
Umpires Asad Rauf and Paul Reifel Third Umpire: S.Asnani
Toss Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat

Playing XI

Kolkatta Knight Riders Eoin Morgan Gautam Gambhir © Jacque Kallis Manoj Tiwari Yusuf Pathan Rajat Bhatia I. Abdullah Bret Lee Sarabjit Ladda Jaidev Unadkat Mark Boucher

Chennai Super Kings M. S. Dhoni© M. Hussy Murali Vijay Suresh Raina S. Badrinath Albie Morkel W. Saha D. Bollinger R. Ashwin Suraj Randiv Shadab Jakati

48th match of the IPL season was between the Kolkata Knight Riders & Chennai Super Kings. Both the teams are very strong contenders for the play offs and are currently in top 4 on the standings. The team earlier met in the 1st match of this season in Chennai. That was a close finish match going down till the last ball. The Riders lost match by a close margin of just 3 runs. With the huge support at the home ground, the Riders wanted to take the revenge of their earlier loss.

The Riders have been looking good under Gambhir's captaincy. Gambhir is the most expensive player of this season and has done justice to his job. Getting into the seasoned Saurav Ganguly's shoes was never an easy task, but the way Gautam has marshaled his resources and the way he has performed under pressure is really commendable.

It was a late start to the match due to light drizzle in the afternoon. But fortunately, there was no cut in the 20 overs format. Bollywood stars like Hrithik Roshan, Arjun Rampal and many others poured in alongwith the rain to support the King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan's Army.

The Chennai skipper won the toss and decided to bat. Murali Vijay and Hussy came out to open the innings. Both are prolific run scorer but looked struggling against the opening bowling attack of Bret Lee and Iqbal Abdullah. Abdullah has been very impressive and has the ability of taking wickets.

Chennai had a bad start when the openers Murali Vijay and Hussy looked struggling. They were watchful and slow to start with. Murali was completely deceived by Abdulla's fine spin and had a soft dismissal after scoring just 4 runs in 14 balls. Raina, who has been in and out of form this season was the next man in.

The Rider's skipper realized that the pitch has something to offer to the spinners and brought Yusuf Pathan to attack. Pathan bowled exceptionally well and got the dangerous Raina's wicket. Raina was trying to hit over short mid wicket and got out on a fine catch by Kallis on the score of just 4 runs. Super Kings were in deep trouble with miserable score card of 15/2 in 6 overs. This was quite unlike the Super King's performance who have always looked confident with bat.

S. Badrinath joined Hussey at the crease. Badrinath's form has been the talk of the town for last few game. Realizing that the boundaries were tough to come, both started rotating the strike to keep the scorecard moving. Hussy lost his wicket to Balaji on a fine catch by the best fielder in the side Eoin Morgan at an the individual score of just 15 runs in 26 balls without any boundary hit, this was Mr. Cricket's one of the worst performance till now. Super Kings were 3 wickets down on 49 runs in 11th over.

Albie Morkel was upgraded and sent up the order to improve the run rate. Though he was little slow initially and took his time to settle down, but Badrinath on the other end was in terrific touch and hit every possible ball he could. Badrinath completed his half centaury and scored 54 in 41 balls with 3 boundaries and 2 sixes. Albie Morkel hit a run-a-ball 30 to build a 65-run partnership for the fourth wicket with Badrinath. This partnership helped the Super Kings put a modest total of 114 on the board.

Exceptionally well bowling performance backed by brilliant fielding helped restrict the Super Kings who were crippled by the conditions and crumbled like cookies. Lee and Abdulla utilized the slow nature of the wicket very well to rattle the Super Kings' line-up. 115 required to win, with a run rate of under 6, the Knight Riders openers Morgan and Kallis came out to bat. The Super Kings have a great bowling attack comprising of Ashwin, Jakati & Bollinger that can convert an ordinary looking total a challenging one. The Super King's skipper had to keep things tight right from the 1st over, to make a good match out of it.

Morkel and Ashwin opened the bowling for Super Kings. Ashwin with his wicket taking abilities struck once again and removed Morgan cheaply for 5. With a strong batting line up yet to come, the Riders were under no pressure. Skipper Gambhir the next man in could not stay on the crease for very long. Ashwin struck once again and got Gambhir out at an individual score of 16. The Riders were two wickets down for 33 in 6 overs.

Kallis was now joined by the in-form Manoj Tiwari. The two started building up a partnership and took the total to 61 runs at the completion of the 10th over. Unfortunately rain stopped the play once again. The condition of the pitch worsened and the match could not be played further. The Riders were 10 runs ahead on the Duckworth-Lewis method against the Super Kings and were declared winner

Result: Kolkata Knight Riders won by 10 runs by D/L method.

The Awards

Man of the match
Iqbal Abdullah for his excellent spell

Maximum Sixes
S Badrinath for hitting 2 sixes

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings top the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virender Sehwag- Delhi Daredevils.

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day
Is it fair to have Play-off system?



Last Updated on 9 May 2011