Cricket Daily

Kolkata’s top order batsmen were ruthless against a pathetic Bangalore bowling attack. The Captain Gambhir leading from the front scored a quick fire 93 and posted a huge target of 190.

In reply to KKR’s total, RCB’s was a very weird chase. They never seemed to be bothered about the big total and were playing at their own pace. Gayle showered some sixed towards the end and fetchem himself the Orange Cap. KKR won by a huge margin of 47 runs!

Scorecard Summary:

Toss Kolkata Knight Riders, who chose to bat

Kolkata Knight Riders 190/4 (Gambhir 93, McCullum 43)

Royal Challengers Bangalore 143/6 (Gayle 86)

Man of the match G Gambhir (93 for KKR)

KKR beat RCB by 47 runs

After putting themselves in to bat first, the opening batsmen fired and got them off to a good start. Kings seemed to have got their batting line-up right by promoting Azhar Mahmood up the order. But other batsmen couldn’t add value. They eventually scored a below-par 156 which looked like an easy target for CSK. But it was not to be.

CSK were off to a slow but steady start. But Mahmood once again showed how good a T20 player he is with the ball, picking up 3 wickets. CSK choked and fell 7 runs short in the end.

Scorecard Summary:

Toss Kings XI Punjab, who chose to bat

Kings XI Punjab 156 for 8 (Mandeep 56, Morkel 3-29)

Chennai Super Kings 149 for 8 (Mahmood 3-35)

Man of the Match Mandeep Singh (56 for KXIP)

KXIP beat CSK by 7 runs

The standings as on Apr 27 after the DD vs MI game.

After their astounding win against Mumbai, Daredevils extended their lead at the top consolidating their position as the table toppers. KKR, CSK and RCB brought up the rear in Top 4.

Deccan have opened their account thanks to a rain abandoned match and a win against Pune Warriors.

Points Table

Sehwag is in one of his destructing forms and it shows when he scored his 3rd half century in a row (Only 3rd player to do that in IPL after Sachin and Kallis). Mumbai won the toss and elected to bowl and repented that decision ever since. Viru and Jayawardene got Daredevils off to a flyer. They scored a quick-fire 135 in just 13 overs for the 1st wicket. Jayawardene played the perfect foil for Sehwag scoring 55. Pietersen took over and further upped the ante scoring an almost 2-run-a-ball 50! Sehwag scored 73 and they all made sure DD posted a hefty total of 207 at the end.

Once their overseas batsman (Blizzard), Sachin and Rohit Sharma (man in form) got out, there was less hope for Mumbai in chasing this total down. Pollard had a small shoulder injury while fielding. Dinesh Karthik and Ambati Rayudu gave some hope with a 96 run partnership for the 4th wicket. But things again went down and MI ended up 37 runs short.

Scorecard summary:

Toss Mumbai Indians, who chose to field

Delhi Daredevils 207 for 5 (Sehwag 73, Jayawardene 55, Pietersen 50*)

Mumbai Indians 170 for 9 (Rayudu 62, Karthik 40)

Man of the match V Sehwag (73 for DD)

DD beat MI by 37 runs

After what seemed like an eternity Cam White finally fired for Deccan Chargers. He scored a 46 ball 78 and helped Deccan Chargers post their 1st win this season. They already had 1 point on board thanks to the rain abandoned match before this. Deccan posted a slightly above par total of 177 and Pune struggled to chase it down. In the absence of Steyn, Theron and Ashish Reddy bowled well, picked up couple of wickets and made sure PW fell short by 18 runs

Scorecard Summary:

Toss Deccan Chargers, who chose to bat

Deccan Chargers 177/4 (White 78, Duminy 26)

Pune Warriors 159/7 (Uthappa 29, Reddy 2-32)

Man of the match CL White (78 for DC)

DC beat PW by 18 runs

The standings as on Apr 21 after the PW vs DD game.

CSK made it into the top 4 after successive wins against PW and RR. DD, RR and PW were the other teams at the top.

Deccan Chargers are yet to start counting.

Points Table

CSK were off to a slow but steady start. M Vijay was rested at last after a string of poor performances. They promoted Badrinath up the order as Faf’s partner. They scored a 100 run partnership and both fell to Samuels when they tried to increase the scoring rate. Dhoni provided a typical finish scoring 28 off just 12 deliveries with 3 4s and a huge 6 and took CSK to 164. The pitch didn’t seem to be very easy to bat on. Samuels picked up 3.

Pune’s chase being badly with them losing both their strike openers Ryder and Uthappa for single digit scores. Ganguly tried to provide some stability but the pressure got to him after scoring a less-than-run-a-ball 24. All the other batsmen got starts but none could convert them into big scores and take PW across the finish line. They fell 13 runs short at the end. It was some fine bowling performance from CSK. Kulasekara and Bravo picked up 2 each with contribution from every other bowler too.

Scorecard Summary:

Toss Pune Warriors, who chose to field

Chennai Super Kings 164/5 (du Plessis 58, Badrinath 57, Samuels 3-39)

Pune Warriors 151/7 (Mathews 27, Kulasekara 2-10)

Man of the Match KMDN Kulasekara (2-10 for CSK)

CSK beat PW by 13 runs

Deccan are yet to win a game in the tournament. Pietersen made sure they remained so after he scored a 92 ball 103 to chase down their total of 153. The target was not threatening thanks to some neat bowling from Morne Morkel and Nadeem who picked 3 wickets apiece.

But DD were in a spot of bother when the chase began. They lost 3 quick wickets for just 23. Taylor also followed suite at 65 in under 10 overs. But Pietersen was in a murderous form and with little help from Taylor (13) and Nagar (23*) at the end made sure Delhi chased the total down in the last over of the game.

Scorecard Summary:

Toss Deccan Chargers, who chose to bat

Deccan Chargers 157/8 (Parthiv 45*, Nadeem 3-16, Morkel 3-23)

Delhi Daredevils 162/5 (Pietersen 103*, Steyn 2-19)

Man of the Match KP Pietersen (103* for DD)

DD beat DC by 5 wickets

Other than winning the toss and batting first, nothing went their way for Punjab. Gilchrist was retired hurt mid way through his innings (though he came back and remained unbeaten on 40).  He along with Marsh got them to a below par score of 124.

Kolkata chased it down with ease losing just 2 wickets in the process. Chawla bowled well picking up 2 for 19. Other than him no one seemed to be troubling the KKR batsmen. Kallis (30*) along with his captain made sure KKR won with nearly 4 overs to spare.

Scorecard Summary:

Toss Kings XI Punjab, who chose to bat

Kings XI Punjab 124/7 (Gilchrist 40*, Lee 2-26, Narine 2-24)

Kolkata Knight Riders 127/2 [16.3] (Gambhir 66*, Kallis 30*)

Man of the Match G Gambhir (66* for KKR)

KKR beat KXIP by 8 wickets

The 2nd high scoring game on the same day. Earlier at 4pm, RR chased down DC’s 196. Now it was the turn of RCB to do so to Pune Warriors. With all these high scoring games, one really wonders if there is any total that is good enough to defend! Or has the bowling and fielding of the both the teams have been pretty ordinary?

Pune won the toss and put themselves to bat and got a good start to the innings thanks to Uthappa (69) and Ryder (34). They set a target of 183 for RCB. With batting line up consisting of Dilshan-Gayle-ABD-Kohli one would have expected RCB to chase this down. Gayle once again proved why he was such a good value for money. At one stage, when more than 100 runs were required in 48 balls, Gayle scorched Rahul Sharma for 5 consecutive 6s and brought the ball-run difference to around 30! That was a turning point in the game.

De Villiers and Saurabh Tiwary stayed till the end. They both scored 24 runs off the final over of Nehra to secure a last ball win. The game was a treat to watch!

Scorecard Summary:

Toss Pune Warriors, who chose to bat

Pune Warriors 182/6 (Uthappa 69, Ryder 34, Samuels 34)

Royal Challengers Bangalore 186/4 [20] (Gayle 81, Tiwary 36*, de Villiers 33*)

Man of the Match CH Gayle (81 for RCB)

RCB beat PW by 6 wickets with no balls remaining