Saturday, 26 April 2008

Super Kings beat Kolkata by 9 wickets

Matthew Hayden slammed 70 runs and Jacob Oram took three wickets to beat Kolkata Knight Riders by 9 wickets in the eleventh match of the Indian Premier League.

Scorecard

Earlier, an all-round bowling display allowed Chennai Super Kings restrict Kolkata Knight Riders to a modest 147 for nine in the Indian Premier League Twenty20 encounter on Saturday.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team seized the initiative with a double blow and the Kolkata team never really recovered in the clash between two of the unbeaten sides in the competition.

New Zealand all-rounder Jacob Oram (3-32) was the wrecker-in-chief as the Knight Riders' big guns - Brendon McCullum, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey and skipper Sourav Ganguly - fell to indiscreet shots. Only Laxmi Ratan Shukla held the innings together with a crucial innings of 42.

Oram started the slide dismissing McCullum and Ponting off successive balls. McCullum was the lone Kolkata batsman to show some aggression in his 24-run effort off 12 balls. The opening stand of 32 (15 balls) between him and Ganguly remained the brightest patch of their innings.

Ganguly seemed be determined to carry his bat through while wickets fell at the other end. But he too made an exit trying to clear Joginder Sharma over the covers. His 12 off 19 balls had just one four.

Kolkata's first fifty came off 30 balls but as wickets fell at regular intervals, the next 50 runs took 57 deliveries.

While Muthiah Muralitharan remained the most economical bowler with 4-0-12-0, P Amarnath claimed two wickets in four overs conceding 29 runs. He ended the tenure David Hussey, who spooned a catch to S Badrinath at point.

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