Knight Riders Look to Maintain Momentum Against Kings XI

After returning to winning ways with a hard-fought triumph over Delhi Daredevils, the Kolkata Knight Riders will be hungry for more when they take on a formidable Kings XI Punjab at home in their Indian Premier League clash here on Saturday.

After suffering two consecutive losses, the Knight Riders came back strongly to beat Delhi Daredevils by 19 runs last night.

Be it in fielding or bowling, the Knight Riders showed intensity, something that was needed after Manoj Tiwary salvaged the batting with a fluent yet combative innings.

Often criticised for not being able to provide the finishing touches in the Knight Riders close losses, the stylish Tiwary remained unbeaten in his 61 from 47 balls with three powerful sixes.

On a day the established Jacques Kallis, Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan aggregated just 34, it proved to be a match-winning knock for the Team India fringe batsman.

Yet, the total did not look match-winning, had it not been for the die-hard efforts by the bowlers and the fielders.

Brett Lee led the attack with amazing accuracy. An inspirational penultimate over by Lee in fact nailed the last chances of the Daredevils.

With 26 needed from last two overs and two batsmen looking to go for the kill, it could have been anybody's game in the Twenty20 scheme of things.

But, Lee conceded two runs and affected two run-outs, one of them in true slam dunk fashion for the final rites of the Delhi outfit.

Kallis failed with the bat but the 35-year-old dished out a some fighting saves on the boundary to lift the morale of the side.

The win meant that the Knight Riders are at number two -- ahead of Chennai Super Kings -- at the midway stage of the Twenty20 tournament and as Gambhir pointed out, it was morale-boosting.

It remains to be seen whether Gambhir leads the pack, often in news for all the wrong reasons, to the pinnacle.

As Knight Riders launch their mission to the next stage after completing half of their league phase, it is all about maintaining the momentum from hereafter.

With three more home matches lined up -- Kings XI Punjab, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians -- it is crucial for the Knight Riders not to lose the grip of it.

At the slow Eden Gardens strip tomorrow, Gambhir will certainly give a thought about bringing in Bangladeshi skipper and left arm spinner Shakib-al-Hasan in the four-foreigner line-up.

That English southpaw Eoin Morgan is yet to hit purple patch may give Gambhir an option.

In Shakib and Iqbal Abdulla, who is doing well at the moment with a 3/25 yesterday, the Knight Riders should not worry about their bowling.

All-rounder material Laxmi Ratan Shukla cooling the benches may sound surprising and the former Bengal skipper may be considered as an option.

They may be lying low on seventh but the Kings are not in a much disadvantageous position considering that they have played only five compared to seven by the Knight Riders.

It's a situation much like that of Kolkata a couple of matches ago.

After three superb wins under their belt, Delhi outgunned Punjab in a run-fest in their previous match.

In second leading run-getter Paul Valthaty, who shot into limelight with 120 not out against Chennai, Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh, Kings XI have a threatening top-order.

With David Hussey, Dinesh Karthik to follow, Kings XI have a formidable batting line-up and they will hope that the bowlers led by Praveen Kumar and World Cup winning leg-spinner Piyush Chawla do their job meticulously.

A win will take them to the play-off zone -- the top-four of the table.

Off the field, it will also be a battle between the hit Bollywood screen couple -- Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta -- the team bosses of Knight Riders and Kings XI respectively.

In the points table, the Knight Riders have eight points, while Kings have six.

Teams from

Kolkata Knight Riders: Gautam Gambhir (capt), Jacques Kallis, Shreevats Goswami (wk), Manoj Tiwary, Yusuf Pathan, Eoin Morgan, Ryan ten Doeschate, Brett Lee, Laxmipathy Balaji, Iqbal Abdulla, Jaydev Unadkat, Shakib-al-Hasan, Brad Haddin (wk), James Pattinson, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Pradeep Sangwan, Shami Ahmed, Rajat Bhatia and Manvinder Bisla (wk).

Kings XI Punjab: Adam Gilchrist (capt & wk), Paul Valthaty, Shaun Marsh, Dinesh Karthik (wk), David Hussey, Abhishek Nayar, Sunny Singh, Ryan Harris, Piyush Chawla, Praveen Kumar, Shalabh Srivastava, Ryan McLaren, Stuart Broad, Love Ablish, Amit Yadav, Bhargav Bhatt, Bipul Sharma, Siddharth Chitnis, Paras Dogra, Vikramjeet Malik, Mandeep Singh, Nitin Saini.

Match facts

Saturday April 30, 2011 (day/night)

Start time 20:00 local (14:30 GMT)

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Rajasthan Royals Thump Deccan Chargers by 8 wickets

Johan Botha (67 not out) helped Rajasthan Royals thrash Deccan Chargers by 8 wickets in their Indian Premier League match at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday.
Chasing a modest 138-run target, Botha hit a six and eight boundaries in his quick-fire 47-ball 67 innings to lead the Royals run-chase as they achieved their target with seven balls to spare.
Botha added match-winning unbeaten 58 runs for the third wicket with Ross Taylor. Taylor hit two huge sixes and a four in his 14-ball 21 innings.
Dale Steyn clean bowled Dravid in the thirteenth over to halt the Royals run-chase. Dravid played patiently for his 35-ball innings as he hit just two boundaries. Dravid also added a vital 52 runs for the second wicket with Johan Botha.
Steyn gave Chargers crucial breakthrough in the sixth over as he dismissed Amit Paunikar after Royals openers started their innings confidently as they added 31 runs.
Earlier, Siddharth Trivedi (3-15) and Shane Warne (2-21) helped Rajasthan Royals restrict Deccan Chargers to 137/8 in their Indian Premier League match.
Trivedi was peak of the bowlers for Royals as he took three crucial wickets and conceded just 15 runs in his four overs.
Royals captain Warne too contributed handsomely as he struck two crucial wickets as he dismissed JP Duminy (14) and Ishank Jaggi (25).
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bowl first against Deccan Chargers in the second match of the IPL 4 at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

Brief scores
Deccan Chargers 137 for 8 (Ravi Teja 28, Trivedi 3-15)
Rajasthan Royals 141 for 2 (Botha 67*, Steyn 2-18)
Result  Rajasthan Royals  won by eight wickets

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Royal Challengers beat Kochi Tuskers by Six Wickets

If the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling doesn’t get you, the batting will. That was the message sent out by the semifinalists of the last edition in their opening tie against IPL newcomers Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
Set a stiff 162 to get at 8.1 an over, the RCB batting might came to the fore to eclipse not just their own modest bowling show but also that of the Kochi batsmen, who had earlier given their strong home supporters a lot to cheer.
They won with six wickets and eight balls to spare but it was not as if RCB had it easy all the way. In fact until KTK skipper Mahela Jayawardene inexplicably brought on local lad Raiphi Vincent Gomez with RCB requiring 33 from the last three overs, the match could have still gone the hosts’ way.
The young man did consume Saurabh Tiwary (26, 25b, 2×4) but then with AB De Villiers around, he still conceded 20 off his only over to hand the momentum and eventually the match to RCB. At that point, Sreesanth, RP Singh and Vinay Kumar had still an over each to go.
De Villiers (54 not out, 40b), who had initially allowed RCB’s young opener Mayank Agarwal (33, 24b, 2×4, 2×6) to set the tempo after the early loss of T Dilshan, after having smashed five sixes and a lone boundary, then watched another young man Asad Pathan smash Vinay Kumar to the fence to bring about the win.
For Kochi earlier, it wasn’t quite mayhem but nearly so as Brendon McCullum found the form that has eluded him in New Zealand colours. The faster that Dirk Nannes bowled, the faster McCullum slammed him. The left-arm quick’s first three deliveries produced 4, 4 and a huge six over midwicket.
With fellow opener VVS Laxman being in his elements too, it was a two-pronged attack. That the wristy Hyderabadi used more than just those famous wrists, bringing on some rarely seen brute power as well, as when he smashed Abhimanyu Mithun for a six over long on, sent the already excited crowd into further raptures.
RCB captain Daniel Vettori had to ring in the changes in an effort to get a grip back on the proceedings. The bowling changes didn’t immediately help, for where Nannes conceded 16 in his first over, Mithun gave away 19. It was left to Dilshan to draw first blood for RCB, Laxman (36, 28b, 2×4, 2×6) holing out at mid wicket. Virat Kohli then had McCullum (45, 32b, 4×4, 2×6) skying a scoop shot.
The openers, with a 55-ball 80-run start had laid the base though and from thereon it was matter of kicking on.
But with Vettori the captain putting aside the frustration and allowing the bowler in him to take over and conceding a meagre 17 from his four overs, Kochi didn’t quite get as much they would have hoped for. And on the night it wasn’t quite enough either.

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