IPLT20CRICKET.NET

Kolkata Knight Riders broke their losing streak in the last two matches as they defeated Delhi Daredevils by 17 runs. Delhi captain Sehwag won the toss and put KKR to bat. Kolkata reached a competitive total of 148/7 in their 20 overs mainly due to Manoj Tiwary’s knock of 61 runs off 47 balls. Umesh Yadav took 2 wickets for DD. In reply, DD never got any partnership along and ended up with only 131/9 in their 20 overs to post their fifth loss in IPL Season 4 2011. Iqbal Abdulla took three wickets for 25 runs while Balaji took 2 wickets. Manoj Tiwary was awarded the Man of the Match for his crucial knock.

Chris Gayle joined Royal Challengers Bangalore as the replacement for Dirk Nannes after he was dropped from the WI squad. But he showed why he is one of the greatest hitters of world cricket as he scored a quickfire century including 7 sixes as KKR had to face yet another brutal defeat at Eden Gardens. RCB captain Daniel Vettori won the toss and put KKR to bat. Kolkata Knight Riders reached a very good total as they scored 171/5 in their 20 overs with important contributions from Gautam Gambhir (48 runs off 38 balls), Yusuf Pathan (46 runs off 24 balls) and Jacques Kallis (40 runs off 42 balls). In reply, Chris Gayle almost single handedly won the game for RCB in his IPL 4 debut as he scored 102 runs in just 55 balls. Bangalore reached 175/1 in just 18.1 overs as Gayle made the target look very easy with the support of Tilakaratne Dilshan (38 runs off 31 balls) and Virat Kohli (30 runs off 23 balls). Chris Gayle was awarded the Man of the Match for his blazing century.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 6 runs in a closely contested match at Eden Gardens. KKR captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and decided to field. KKR bowled well as Kochi managed to only reach 132/7 in their 20 overs with nobody scoring even 30+ for KTK. Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hassan took 3 wickets each for KKR. In reply, KKR also kept on losing wickets regularly and even a valiant effort by Manoj Tiwary (46 runs off 51 balls) could not help as KKR only managed to reach 126/9 in 20 overs. RP Singh and Ravindra Jadeja took two wickets each for the Kochi team. Kochi captain Jayawardena was awarded the Man of the Match for his overall performance with the bat, on the field and for his excellent captaincy.

Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Rajasthan Royals at Eden Gardens with 6.1 overs to spare as they topped the points table perhaps for the first time in IPL history. After the consecutive wins in the last two matches, it was hardly a surprise that Eden Gardens was almost suddenly filled up today after the low attendance in the previous matches which many felt was due to the “Dada effect”. Kolkata Knight Riders captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and put Rajasthan Royals to bat. An awesome bowling and fielding display by KKR players and a pathetic batting display by Royals made the RR fold up in just 81 runs all out in 15.2 overs. Lakshmipathy Balaji (3 wickets for 15 runs) and Shakib Al Hassan (2 wickets for 21 runs) were the pick of the bowlers for KKR. In reply, KKR lost a couple of early wickets but KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir (35 runs off 35 balls) and Manoj Tiwary (30 runs off 26 balls) played steady knocks as Kolkata Knight Riders reached 85/2 in just 13.5 overs. Balaji was awarded Man of the Match for his brilliant bowling.