Gambhir misses century but stars in Kolkata's big win

Kolkata, Apr 29: Skipper Gautam Gambhir led from front with a rollicking 93 as Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 47 runs in their Indian Premier League match, here today.Gambhir bulldozed the Bangalore bowling with his blazing 51-ball knock as Kolkata posted an imposing 190 for four, their highest total of the season, and then restricted Bangalore to 143 for six.Apart from Gambhir, Brendon McCullum (43 off 37) and Jacques Kallis (41 off 27) contributed in their huge score.

Gambhir played some breath-taking shots in his innings, which was studded with five huge sixes and nine fours.

Bangalore wilted under pressure of big chase and lost three top-order batsman inside six overs. They just played a catch job from there on with Chris Gayle holding one end.

Gayle was top scorer for Bangalore with his 86 off 58 balls but his fiery knock came too late. His knock was adorned with six sixes and seven fours.

Had fellow West Indian Sunil Narine not dropped Gayle in the third over, the visitors could have suffered worse defeat. Gayle was on 12 at that time.

With this win Kolkata stay on second position in the points table behind Delhi Daredevils but now have 11 points, two better than Chennai Super Kings and RCB.

Bangalore needed a good start by they lost Tillakaratane Dilshan (1), Virat Kohli (18) and AB de villiers (0) in a hurry and were ousted from the game.

Earlier, everything went right for Kolkata, from winning the toss to a good start and then a good finish.

Gambhir and Brendon McCullum put on 95 runs for the opening wicket, their highest first-wicket stand of the season, to lay foundation of a big score. Gambhir also added 80 with Kallis for the second wicket.

Kings XI Punjab hold their nerves to beat CSK by 7 runs

Chennai, Apr 28: Underdogs Kings XI Punjab scored an upset seven-run victory over defending champions Chennai Super Kings in an Indian Premier League match, here today.Defending a target of 157, Punjab bowlers led by all-rounder Azhar Mahmood held their own at the death as they restricted the much-vaunted CSK batting line-up to 149 for eight, at MA Chidambaram Stadium.Chennai stay put on nine points from as many matches while KXIP are on eight points but occupy the eighth position despite their fourth win.
Credit to Parvinder Awana, Praveen Kumar and Mahmood who bowled the final three overs when CSK needed 39 runs which is considered a gettable target in the shortest format. The three medium pacers bowled a fuller length hardly giving any room to the opposition batsmen who stuttered and lost wickets at regular intervals.

Mahmood played an useful hand at the rear scoring a quickfire 18 off 12 balls and then had impressive figures of three for 25 which also included the prize-scalp of Albie Morkel who was accounted in the first delivery of the final over.

Chennai got off to blistering start with a 47-run opening stand between Subramaniam Badrinath and Faf du Plessis in 5.3 overs. In-form Du Plessis made 29 off 20 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes while Badrinath’s 18-ball 25 consisted of four boundaries.

Both set the tone for the chase before Du Plessis was caught and bowled by Mahmood. Mahmood dismissed Badrinath in his second spell when the batsman was caught at the square leg boundary.

The dismissal of Badrinath in the eighth over dried up runs for the defending champions. Suresh Raina (15) and Wriddhiman Saha (6) found the going tough against KXIP’s spin and pace duo of Piyush Chawla and Awana.