T20 Cricket News

20 overs Kolkata Knight Riders 160 for 9 (McCullum 45, Gayle 34, Vinay 3-23, Kallis 2-31) v Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challengers Bangalore fought back to undermine a strong batting performance from Kolkata Knight Riders' big names to give themselves a good chance of moving to second place in the IPL points table. Sourav Ganguly, Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum all got starts and threatened to boost Kolkata to a formidable total but Bangalore snatched the momentum in the middle overs with some crafty bowling that redressed the damage caused by poor spells at the start.

Anil Kumble chose to bowl, banking on Bangalore's good record while chasing at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, but openers Ganguly and Gayle fed off some indisciplined bowling from Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn, who failed to use the early swing and movement to their advantage. Despite beating the bat on more than one occasion, they squandered the psychological edge by pitching too short and offering enough width to batsmen who've accumulated a major share of their runs off such deliveries.

Ganguly favoured the off side, Gayle the on; they used the cut and the pull with aplomb, as Kolkata raced to 61 in the Powerplay. The bulk of the damage was caused in the fifth over, where Ganguly cleared long-off and Gayle bludgeoned Praveen through midwicket to steal 21. Ganguly was especially adept at dispatching the short and wide ball, slashing Jacques Kallis over third man and late-cutting Kumble past point.

But Bangalore's depth in bowling came to their rescue, Vinay Kumar and Kallis combined to grab three wickets for two runs in nine balls. And it all seemed a part of a calculated strategy. Vinay slipped in the slower one which Ganguly failed to pick and pulled straight to square leg; Kallis, aware of the Indian weakness against the bouncer, had Manoj Tiwary miscue one to backward point and Vinay followed up the next over with another short delivery, which Angelo Mathews smacked into the hands of a carefully-placed deep point.

McCullum, however, played his attacking game, unperturbed by the slide. The IPL debutant Sridharan Sriram, a left-arm spinner who used his favoured variation, the chinaman, way too often, was pulled for a four and a six and swept for two boundaries the same over; Vinay, fresh from the wicket of Mathews, had to endure the frustration of watching two edges off successive deliveries disappear for ten runs.

But Bangalore struck again at the death, with Kumble, the most economical of the lot, getting McCullum to pull one straight to deep square leg and Steyn, who thrilled the crowd with his fiery pace, often ruffling the young Kolkata batsmen, using the slower one to snare Wriddhiman Saha. Cheteshwar Pujara took Kolkata to respectability with two huge sixes off Kallis in the penultimate over, but still short of expectations after Kolkata's big three had shone.

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