The Warriors suffered their first blow when they lost skipper Aaron Finch early to Jacques Kallis.
Kallis, whose appeal for a run out was turned down by the third umpire earlier in the over, got the better of Finch's (5) stumps when the Kolkata all-rounder's short of length delivery kept low.
Laxmipathy Balaji then extended Yuvraj's (1) misery in the IPL as the smiling assassin got the Pune southpaw to nick the ball straight to Manvinder Bisla behind the stumps.
Udit Birla and Robin Uthappa then tried to hold their nerves and steady the Pune chase with a 16-run stand, however spinner Iqbal Abdulla scalped the latter to put the Knights in a commanding position.
Earlier, a late batting surge by Ryan ten Doeschate helped Kolkata Knight Riders post 152/6 against Pune Warriors India.
The Warriors kept the Knight Riders in check throughout the match as they kept picking up regular wickets.
However, Ryan ten Doeschate looked to break that routine when he blasted his way towards a valiant 21-ball 31 that included 3 boundaries and a lone six.
Earlier, Kolkata skipper Gautam Gambhir smashed his 20th IPL half-century after he won the toss and elected to bat against Pune Warriors India.
Gambhir (50) hit 6 boundaries in his gritty innings and helped get the Kolkata Knight Riders off to a flying start before the Knights lost the wickets of Manvinder Bisla and Jacques Kallis cheaply.
Gambhir and Bisla put up a swift 45-run partnership before Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck to dismiss Bisla (12) when the Kolkata opener was brilliantly stumped by wicketkeeper Mahesh Rawat.
Soon after, debutant Parvez Rasool, who became the first cricketer from Jammu and Kashmir to play in the IPL, got the all-important wicket of Kallis (2) by having him caught by Angelo Mathews at short cover.
Mitchell Marsh then got the prized wicket of Gambhir when he had the Kolkata Knight Riders skipper caught at short mid-wicket by Mathews.
Bhuvneshwar then came back to scalp Yusuf Pathan when the Pune bowler's short of length ball outside the off stump was nicked by the Kolkata batsman to the wicketkeeper.
The Knight Riders head into this match with two changes to their playing XI as Ryan ten Doeschate and Manoj Tiwary come into the team in place Ryan McLaren and Debabrata Das.
On the other hand, the Warriors bring in Rasool in place of Rahul Sharma.
Teams:
Pune Warriors India: Robin Uthappa, Aaron Finch (Capt.), Yuvraj Singh, Angelo Mathews, Mitchell Marsh, Udit Birla, Mahesh Rawat (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Wayne Parnell, Krishnakant Upadhyay, Parvez Rasool.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (Capt.), Manvinder Bisla (wk), Yusuf Pathan, Jacques Kallis, Rajat Bhatia, Laxmipathy Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine, Ryan ten Doeschate, Manoj Tiwary.
0 comments:
Post a Comment