Kolkata Knight Riders won by nine wickets and with nine deliveries to
spare. It shouldn't have been that easy but Gautam Gambhir and Jacques
Kallis starred in a supremely well-paced chase as Kolkata successfully
hunted down a potentially tough 160-run target on a sluggish track in
Jaipur.
The first game-seizing moment of the chase came in the sixth over,
bowled by Amit Singh. Kolkata were 44 for 1 from five overs and it was
obvious that they had to fully utilise the new ball and the Powerplay on
this slow track. It was an over that could have tilted the game either
way: Amit tried to keep it tight, Gambhir took risks, two shots eluded
palms of fielders in the off side but not by much, and Gambhir looted 18
runs. He flat-batted the first ball past the diving Ross Taylor at
extra cover, slashed the third past the diving Abhishek Raut at point,
glanced the fourth to fine-leg, and crashed the final delivery over
mid-off.
The second turning point was Gambhir's contest with Shane Warne, who
introduced himself in the seventh over. Gambhir cut his third delivery
through the covers, and slog swept the first ball of the 10th over to
collect another four. When Warne gave himself another over, to try and
pick up a wicket, Gambhir sashayed down the track and scythed a flighted
delivery through extra cover. By the end of that over, Kolkata only
needed 58 runs from 48 balls and Gambhir and Kallis stayed till the end
to achieve a comfortable win.
Gambhir found great support in Kallis, who was instrumental in starting
the chase in a positive fashion. He lifted Ashok Menaria's left-arm spin
for a four and a six over long-off in the third over, whipped Shane
Watson to midwicket and slashed Nayan Doshi through backward point. He
dropped anchor once Gambhir took over the baton.
Rajasthan would probably wish they had played Shaun Tait to create
wicket-taking opportunities but they had put up a pretty decent batting
effort. Fuelled by calculated aggression from Rahul Dravid and Menaria,
who seemed to be aiming for something around 160, Rajasthan reached 75
for 1 from 11 overs. It seemed at that stage that their job, especially
Dravid's, was done and it was time to hand the reins over to Shane
Watson and Ross Taylor.
In the 12th over, Yusuf Pathan had a double strike - Dravid didn't
connect with a slog and Menaria swatted a return catch, and the stage
was set for the two big hitters. Rajasthan seized momentum by looting 14
runs in the 16th over with Taylor spanking a long hop and a full toss
from L Balaji for sixes. Watson heaved Shakib Al Hasan for a straight
six in the 14th over and slog-swept him over wide midwicket for another
six in the 17th over. Shakib slowed up the pace on the next delivery and
Watson was bowled as he missed another attempted slog sweep. Rajasthan
were 125 for 4 at that stage, and Taylor stayed till the end to guide
them to a good total. But they were thwarted by a fabulous captain's
knock from Gambhir.
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