PL 5: Kolkata earn a shot at the title, beat Delhi by 18 runs

May 23, 2012
kkr_18runs

Pune: When Delhi Daredevils took on Kolkata Knight Riders in the Qualifier in Pune, the difference in the teams' mindset was evident. Delhi stuck to their pace-heavy plan, while Kolkata picked three frontline spinners. And that did make a difference.

Kolkata's batsmen scored heavily off the Delhi pacers to set things up nicely for their bowlers. In the end, they won by 18 runs to enter the final for the first time.

Kolkata won the toss and batted first, but couldn't really get their scoring rate up despite Gautam Gambhir, the captain, throwing his bat at everything. Gambhir hit three fours and two sixes, but just as he looked like he was on cue for another big innings, Venugopala Rao ran him out with a direct hit.


Gambhir scored his 32 at a strike rate of 200, but his opening partner Brendon McCullum and Jacques Kallis failed to come close to matching that. Irfan Pathan bowled his quota for 20 runs and Pawan Negi, the left-arm spinner, bowled his for just 18 to stifle the batsmen. If anything, the Kolkata innings took flight only once the two battle-hardened overseas batsmen fell.


Yusuf Pathan had largely been quiet throughout IPL V, while Laxmi Ratan Shukla was in and out of the playing XI. On the evening though, the duo were exceptional. When they started out, Kolkata's run rate was 6.62. When the two were done smashing the Delhi pacers around, the run rate had gone up to 8.10. From a seemingly hopeless situation, Kolkata had reached a healthy 162 for four.

But no target is big enough if either of the Delhi openers - Virender Sehwag and David Warner - gets going. Kolkata managed to send both back early though. Warner fell first, to a howler from umpire Billy Doctrove, given out caught behind off his pad. Sehwag fell soon after when he edged Lakshmipathy Balaji to McCullum. Delhi were two down for 24. What followed though was a strong fightback from Mahela Jayawardene and Naman Ojha as they stayed abreast of the asking rate. Once the two fell though, things fell apart.

Sunil Narine was expected to be the difference between the two sides if things got too close, but both Kallis and Iqbal Abdullah bowled brilliant spells to make things simple for Kolkata. Kallis returned figures of two for 24 and Abdullah one for 25 as Delhi lost wickets regularly towards the end. Delhi will now wait for the winner of the game between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians for a second chance to reach the final.



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Agencies
April 25,2020

London, Apr 25: Former Australian cricketer Graeme Watson who was fighting cancer, has died at the age of 75.

Primarily a middle-order batsman and a medium-pace bowler, he featured in five Tests from 1967 to 1972 and two ODIs in 1972, ESPNcricinfo reported.

The all-rounder earned the national call during the 1966-67 tour of Rhodesia and South Africa. Watson slammed a half-century in the first innings of the second Test of the series.

However, the medium-pace bowler was ruled of the next test after suffering an ankle injury. He returned for the fourth Test in Johannesburg where scalped his career-best 2 for 67 but failed to leave a mark with the bat as Kangaroos lost the series.

In 1971-72 he moved to Western Australia and played a major role in their Sheffield-Shield win in 1971-72, 1972-73, and 1974-75 seasons.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 25: India opening batsman KL Rahul will be available for Karnataka's Ranji Trophy semi-final clash against Bengal at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 29.

Rahul had asked to be rested from Karnataka's quarter-final match but is now available for the climactic stages of the Ranji Trophy. 

Karnataka had already been strengthened by the addition of Manish Pandey for the quarter-finals, with both Pandey and Rahul having returned from New Zealand after India completed the limited-overs leg of their tour, ESPNcricinfo reported.

Last year's finalists Saurashtra will take on Gujarat in the other semi-final at Rajkot. The other prominent players who will be part of the last four include Parthiv Patel (Gujarat), Jaydev Unadkat (Saurashtra) and Manoj Tiwary (Bengal).

Gujarat, Bengal, Karnataka, and Saurashtra had finished on top of the combined Groups A and B table, and all four progressed to the semi-finals after dominating their respective quarter-final matches.

Rahul has been phenomenal with the bat in the limited-overs series against Australia and New Zealand. He scored one century and four fifty-plus scores in his last ten innings in ODIs and T20Is combined

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News Network
May 8,2020

Karachi, May 8: A cricket museum based in India has bought a bat auctioned by Pakistan Test captain Azhar Ali to raise funds for the needy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Azhar had put two of his precious belongings -- the bat he used to score 302 runs against the West Indies in a Test in 2016 and the jersey he wore during the 2017 Champions Trophy final win over India -- on an online auction to raise funds for the people affected by the deadly disease.

Both the bat and jersey were signed by members of the Pakistan team.

Azhar announced on social media that he had kept a base price of one million each for the bat and jersey and they had sold for 2.2 million.

He confirmed that Blades of Glory Cricket Museum based in Pune bought the bat by making a winning offer of Rs. 1 million for the bat.

Azhar said that the auction of the shirt also generated a lot of interest and Kash Villani, a Pakistani based in California, came up with the highest bid of Rs. 1.1 million for the shirt before the conclusion of the auction.

Another Pakistani based in New Jersey, Jamal Khan also donated Rs. 100,000 for the cause.

"I put two of my closest belongings on auction with base price of 1 million PKR each to support people suffering due to ongoing crisis. Auction starts now and will close on 11:59 PM 05 May, 2020," Azhar had tweeted.

Ali became the first international player to score a test triple century in Day/Night Test when he scored an unbeaten 302 against the West Indies team in UAE in 2016.

"The shirt is from 2017 Champions Trophy which we won, it has the signature of all the players which were present in the squad," Ali said in a video posted on Twitter.

"Both these things are close to my heart but if it can be used in the difficult times for the benefit of the people I will more than happy."

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