In Angelo Mathews, Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have found their talismanic player. After doing a star turn with the bat in the opening encounter, the tall Sri Lankan turned his arm over and his four-for took the fight out of the RCB team.
The Kolkata Knight Riders made light of the Royal Challengers target of 136 to win the fourth encounter in IPL 2010 by seven wickets.
With a small target to chase, the Knight Riders got off to a brilliant start with both openers scoring fifties. Manoj Tiwary, who had missed out in the first match, came good with the bat. Tiwary, touted as a gifted youngster whose promising career has been hampered by injuries, came out like a man possessed. The stylist Bengal cricketer playing in the uncharacteristic position of an opener reached his fifty off just 28 balls (50, 29, 6x4, 2x6). Brad Hodge gave him good company scoring a sedate 50 (50, 45b, 7x4). Captain Ganguly looked like he would help his team cruise to the target, but his side took a while to reach this meager total, getting it only in the last over. KKR scored the last 24 runs, after losing Hodge’s wicket, in 32 balls.
Royal Challengers Bangalore had lost the plot early in the encounter losing three wickets for a mere 20 runs by the sixth over. Sreevats Goswami, Manish Pandey and Virat Kohli were all back in the dug-out without disturbing the scorer too much.
Bangalore’s much talked of young talent couldn’t do anything in this match as the Knight Riders attack kept a tight leash on the scoring rate. KKR’s new-ball bowlers, Charl Langeveldt and Ishant Sharma, never allowed the batting to settle down. At one time the scoring rate was less than four an over.
Angelo Mathews stepped in at this time and induced last season’s hero Manish Pandey to bottom-edge the ball onto his stumps. Murali Kartik, the unsung hero of KKR, then beguiled Virat Kohli to leave RCB tottering at the brink.
Mathews and Kartik continued Langeveldt and Sharma’s good work and the RCB batsmen could cross the boundary ropes only twice. One of the fours came off talented Englishman Eoin Morgan’s bat when he hit Brad Hodge over long-off. RCB was hoping their new find would prove to be the saviour like he has been for England, but Morgan got out for 10 playing a reverse-sweep.
This win earns KKR 4 points while RCB will have to hope their next encounter against KXIP will open their IPL points’ account.
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