Cricket Tournaments

There are lessons to be learnt in every defeat. But, the Kolkata Knight Riders don’t seem to believe in this mantra. In what was yet another inexplicably slow batting performance at the Brabourne Stadium, the Knight Riders managed to put up a mere 155 runs on the board against Mumbai Indians.

This, despite having lost just a solitary wicket at the start of the final over. The Knight Riders had a lot going for them. They won the toss and elected to bat. More importantly, Chris Gayle was available to open the innings with Sourav Ganguly. And while the duo did well to add 70, the problem was that it took 11 overs, too slow for the 20-over format.

Worse still, Ganguly was dismissed after having consumed 34 deliveries for his 31 and though Owais Shah and Gayle managed to strike some hefty blows towards the end, it was a case of too little too late.

No praise can be too high for the Mumbai bowlers though. They plotted Kolkata’s downfall methodically. It all began with the maverick Lasith Malinga bowling a succession of slower off cutters to Gayle, who was completely taken by surprise. The only answer he had was to present a straight bat or let the ball through to the keeper safely.

The smart strategy meant the Kolkata innings never gained momentum. Though Ganguly began well with a couple of well-timed fours in the opening over, he too was tied down by some tight bowling. Harbhajan Singh was especially impressive. Following the batsmen with most of his deliveries, he never gave either Gayle or Ganguly any chance to free their arms. A frustrated Ganguly finally fell to the guile of the off-spinner, going for an ugly slog to midwicket.

If Kolkata did manage to cross 150, it was due to the late assault by Gayle and Shah. They picked up important boundaries off Ryan McLaren and Dwayne Bravo. But, Zaheer Khan got them both in final over to reduce the damage done during the death. Gayle ended up with 75 off 60 deliveries. And, though it looked great in the overall analysis, the fact of the matter was that he should have opened up a lot earlier. The lethargic attitude of the Kolkata openers easily cost them 30-40 runs, which proved fatal in the final analysis.

For Kolkata to put up a fight in their defence, leave alone winning, they needed Shane Bond to deliver the early strikes. On the contrary, he was wayward and ended up conceding three boundaries in the opening over and thus set the tone for the remainder of the match. Sachin Tendulkar (71*) batted in the manner he knows best, driving and cutting with ease.

It did help that Ishant Sharma offered him a number of freebies either on a length or short of it. Once again, it was Murali Kartik who managed to slow down the flow of runs with his accurate left-arm spin. He even broke the dangerous opening partnership, beating Shikhar Dhawan in the flight. But, but that time, Mumbai had swiftly progressed to 61 in under seven overs.

Sachin continued to dazzle even as Ishant managed to pick up a couple of consolation wickets towards the end. But, it was yet another below par effort by Kolkata. They were thoroughly outplayed, tactically more than anything else.

The boys from West Indies got the better of the England in a rain-reduced run chase through the Duckworth Lewis method to make it to the semi finals of the T20 WC Men’s competition. They beat the hosts to knock them out of the competition. This is for the first time after a gap of more than ten years that the West Indies team has made it to the Semi Finals of a major tournament.

The experience of Ramnaresh Sarwan and classy Shivnarine Chanderpaul through an unbeaten partnership of 37 runs in 20 balls ensured safe passage for West Indies into the Semifinals. With South Africa having already qualified from this group, the match between England and West Indies was nothing sort of a Quarter Final Clash. The Windies players managed to hold on to their nerves in an intriguing match to make it to the Semi finals of the T20 World Cup competition this year.

Earlier set into bat the Englishmen scored a respectable 161 runs loosing six wickets in the process. Ravi Bopara played the crucial anchor’s role scoring 55 runs and Kevin Pietersen scored a quick fire 31 runs of just 19 balls to set up a challenging total for the West Indies. Other notable contributions included Owais Shah with 18 runs, Stuart Broad with 10 crucial runs of just 2 balls and James Foster with a useful knock of 13 runs towards the end of the innings. The Englishmen were hoping to get a complete match, which might have given them a chance of reaching the semis.

With heavy downpour right after the England innings, the match eventually got underway with West Indies being set a revised target of 80 runs from nine overs. The England bowlers did their best to restrict the Windies batsman as Ryan Sidebottom got rid of the dangerous Chris Gayle, after the opener had hammered him in the first four balls of the over. Stuart Broad got rid of Lendl Simmons in his very first over. West Indies were tottering at 23 for the loss of three wickets and the shortened target was looking stiff.

Dwayne Bravo, the only Windies player to have been consistent throughout the tournament contributed useful 18 runs to the run chase, before the English pair of Swann and Foster combined to remove him. With Bravo gone, the West Indies were looking for some miracle to make it to the next round. With 16 runs required of the last two overs, the experienced pair of Chanderpaul and Sarwan ensured that West Indies suffered no further hiccups in the run chase. By scoring 13 runs of the penultimate over the Windies batsman ended all hopes of an England victory. Sarwan ended the match by smashing Sidebottom to the extra cover boundary.

West Indies thus made it to the Semifinals of the competition through group E and must watch out for the match between South Africa and India, to get to know their fate. If South Africa can beat India, the West Indian team would qualify for the Semi Finals as the Group runner up and might face the daunting task of playing last year’s loosing finalist Pakistan in the Semi finals.