Journalism of Courage
Ravindra Jadeja hit a 14-ball 36 to guide his side to victory against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Kolkata today.
There was a little hiccup in the middle phase of Chennai Super Kings8217; innings,but Jadeja got the big hits towards the end to seal the fixture. The Kolkata Knight Riders were there in the game,but Sunil Narine8217;s and Jacques Kallis8217; expensive last overs made it all too easy for the visitors,who won with five balls to spare.
Chennai made a mess of the modest chase,and were all at sea against Kolkata8217;s spin duo of Sunil Narine and Sachithra Senanayake The visitors experiment of opening with R Ashwin didn8217;t work out as the spinner departed without making a substantial contribution.
The spinners took control of the situation and boundaries were not coming for Chennai. Senanayake,in particular,posed a lot of problems for Murali Vijay,who fell prey to the spinner after a testing time in the middle.
A couple of wickets injected a fresh lease of life into the KKR unit,and the visitors were soon reduced to 4/54.
The Aussie was not going at a brisk pace,but kept the scoreboard ticking with the singles as Gambhir was rotating his bowlers really well and didn8217;t allow CSK to settle down.
Hussey accelerated towards the end but couldn8217;t see his side through. The left-hander scored a watchful 40 and played a pivotal role in the four-wicket win.
The Eden Gardens8217; strip had some grass but the captains didn8217;t pay too much attention to the same. Gautam Gambhir was not moved by the rain clouds either,and elected to bat first.
Experimenting with a struggling Yusuf Pathan at the top of the order,Kolkata Knight Riders got off to a flying start as boundaries came in plenty. Both Gautam Gambhir and Pathan took the attack to the opposition and left no scoring opportunity.
It was a dream start for the home side,something they have not managed in the tournament so far,before some brilliance in the field halted Gambhir-Pathan show. Michael Hussey took a sensational catch in the deep,S Badrinath produced a brilliant run-out,Dwayne Bravo bowled a deceptive slower one,and followed it with a athletic run-out,to control proceedings.
From 46/0,the defending champions were reduced to 4/55 in no time. The middle-order failed to capitalise on a solid platform and couldn8217;t make a move on. A lot of hopes were pinned on Manoj Tiwary and Debabrata Das to guide their side to a respectable total,but they duo failed to convert their starts and were removed by R Ashwin in quick succession.
A couple of meaty blows from Sunil Narine took the score over hundred,but It was not a good sight for KKR fans as the team struggled to post a paltry 119/9 on the board.
Teams
Kolkata Knight Riders
G Gambhir c,JH Kallis,YK Pathan,MK Tiwary,EJG Morgan,DB Das wk,LR Shukla,R Bhatia,SMSM Senanayake,SP Narine,L Balaji
Chennai Super Kings
M Vijay,MEK Hussey,SK Raina,S Badrinath,RA Jadeja,MS Dhoni c amp; wk,DJ Bravo,JA Morkel,CH Morris,R Ashwin,MM Sharma
