Match 41: Chennai Wins by D/L, Rain Stops Play! Bad Luck for Kolkata!

Two days in a row, Duckworth-Lewis helped the chasing team to win by a narrow margin. In yesterday's match, Kings XI Punjab won by 6 runs.

Kings XI Wins Rain Halted Match!

In the match played between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders, the severe storm halted the match for few minutes and then rain followed.

The papers started flying, the covers were flying too. Such severe was the wind storm.

Chasing 150 in 20 overs, Chennai did not lose wickets in the first 8 overs and that helped them to gain the winning points. The catch of Parthiv Patel was dropped at long leg by Dinda. It was short ball and he pulled and went straight to Dinda, who dropped the sitter. It was the 4th ball of the 8th over.

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Next ball was a boundary by Fleming, the ball pitched on the leg stump and he just flicks it. No run in the last ball.

Play was stopped after that and sure that Ganguly would not have expected it! Either the catch should have been taken or the boundary in the fifth ball should have been stopped. One of these two would have turned the match in favor of Kolkata.

At the end of the 8th over, Chennai should be at 53 for no loss, but they were 55 for no loss, thus winning by 2 runs.

Both Fleming and Patel playing sensibly. They negogiated Shoaib Akhtar and Ishanth Sharma very well. Not losing the wickets helped them to clinch the match.

The first over by Shoaib added 5 to the total, but Patel hit a good cover drive to score the first boundary. Later, in the same over, Fleming hit two continuous fours to take the score to 18 in 2 overs.

Shoaib conceeded two fours in the next over to Fleming. 4th and 5th over added just 9 runs to the total. At the end of 5 overs, Chennai were 36 for no loss.

The 6th over bowled by Agarkar added 7 runs including a boundary by Patel. The 7th over added 4 runs to take the score to 47 for no loss in 7 overs.

The 8th over bowled by Agarkar, added 7 to the total including a wide in the 2nd ball and a four of the 5th ball by Fleming. A catch was dropped on the 4th ball for Patel at fine leg by Dinda.

Earlier, winning the toss and deciding to bat first, it was another slow scoring game for Ganguly's men.

Salman Butt top scored with 73 off 54 ball with 10 fours and a six.

Hafeez was caught by Gony off Nitni for 6. Poor and irresponsible short selection for the second time by Ganguly put pressure to Kolkata. Giving himself room to slog for a six, Ganguly lost his middle stump off Nitni, giving him his second wicket. Kolkata struggling at 28 for 2 in 5 overs.

Das and Butt revived the innings by adding 86 runs for the 3rd wicket 67 balls. End of 10 overs, Kolkata were 61 for 2 with Butt on 31 and Das on 15.

Muralitharan's over proved little costly. Das and Butt hit a six each in the 12th over to take the score to 85 for 2.

Salman reached his 50 in 44 balls with 5 fours and a six.

Salmat hit 3 continuous fours of Muralitharan and provided the momentum. At the end of 16 overs, Kolkata were 114 for 2.

Dass was another hat-trick victim for Nitni. He lost his leg stump on 27 off 32 balls with 1 four and 2 sixes.

Hussey was bowled and his off stump uprooted for a duck. That was his hat-trick. End of over 17, Kolkata were 118 for 4.

Butt hit a four of the first ball of Balaji in the 18th over and got out in the next ball. He moved across and tried to scoop over fine leg, but hit fully on the boot and declared leg before.

Shukla hit a bounday over backward ponit of the last ball of the 18th over to take the score to 130 for 5.

The last two overs added 19 runs and Kolkata finished with 149 for 5.

Nitni was declared the man of the match for his wonderful spell of 4 for 21 including a hat-trick.

With this victory, Chennai registers their 7th win and stays in the top 4. Kolkata has to win their remaining to matches to keep their hopes alive.

Match 41
Venue: Kolkata
Date: May 18, 2008
Teams: Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings
Captains: Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Toss: Kolkata Knight Riders and decided to bat
Result: Chennai Super Kings won by 2 runs (D/L Method) (with 10 wickets in hand)
Man of the Match: M Ntini off Chennai Super Kings (South Africa)
Points: Chennai Super Kings-2; Kolkata Knight Riders-0
Score:

Kolkata Knight Riders 149 for 5 in 20 overs (Salman Butt 73, Mohammad Hafeez 6, SC Ganguly 2, DB Das 27, DJ Hussey 0, LR Shukla 13 Not out, WP Saha 15 not out, Extras-13(b 2, lb 7, wide 3, nb 1), M Ntini 4-0-21-4, M Gony 4-0-17-0, M Muralitharan 4-0-41-0, L Balaji 4-0-36-1, JA Morkel 4-0-25-0) lost to Chenani Super Kings (when dust storm and rain stopped play in the 8th over last ball, Chennai Super Kings should have been at 53 with the loss of no wickets) 55 for no loss in 8 overs (PA Patel 19 not out, SP Fleming 32 not out, Extras-4 (lb 1, wide 3), Shoaib Akhtar 2-0-14-0, I Sharma 2-0-16-0, AB Dinda 2-0-10-0, AB Agarkar 2-0-14-0)

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Match 40: Kings XI Wins the Rain Halted Thriller!

Kings XI won their battle against Delhi Daredevils and almost booked their spot for the semi finals. In the rain curtailed match, the Duckworth-Lewis system favored the visiting team in the end.

Delhi Daredevils were 94 for 1 in 8.1 overs when rain stopped play with Sehgwa on 47 and Dhawan on 1. When the match resumed, the overs were reduced to 11 per side. Delhi ended their innings at 118 for 4. Sehwag scored a quick fire 50 of 23 balls with 2 fours and 5 sixes.

Earlier, Gambhir, played his part by hammering all over the ground. He scored 40 off 28 balls before being bowled by Romesh Pawar.

For Kings XI, as per the Duckworth-Lewis calculations, the target was revised to 123 in 11 overs. Hopes' last over reduced the chasing target as he picked two crucial wickets and gave away just 3 runs.

Chasing 123, the first over by McGrath had only 3 runs in the board. Marsh was brilliantly at cover. Shoaib Malik and Dhawan went for the catch and finally without colliding each other Dhawan took a good catch. Dangerous batsman gone!

Yuvaraj Singh promoted himself for number 3. The powerplay has been redued to 3 overs he planned to use it for himself. He hit a four to fine leg and a six over backward point. Momentum given by the skipper!

109 required off 54 balls.

McGrath finally got his piece in the IPL. He went for 15 runs with two huge sixes--one over long off and the other one over square leg. McGrath got Yuvaraj Singh brilliantly caught by Maharoof in the boundary. He mistimed the short ball and hit it over long on where Maharoof took a good catch. Yuvaraj scored 23 off 8 balls with 1 four and 3 sixes.

Hopes got out in the next over, trying to hit a six was caught at long on by Shoaib Malik off Mishra.

At the end of four overs, Kings XI were 34 for 3 with 90 more to get in 7 overs.

With wickets falling and having curtailed the run rate, and it was raining, Sehwag wanted to finish the 5 overs so that the result can be brought in to the game.

He bowled the 5th over, which turned very costly for Delhi.

Jayawardane sterred the first ball to third man boundary; The second ball was a wide; rebowled second ball was a reverse sweep to third man boundary; third ball was a boundary to fine leg, it was swept well; fourth ball was a single; fifth ball was a huge six over deep midwicket by Pomersbach; last ball was two runs. This over added 22 runs and gave the second momentum to Kings XI.

End of 5 overs, Kings XI were 56 for 3 with 68 off 6 overs. At this stage, if the match was stopped due to rain, it would have been a tie as Kings XI were supposed to be at 57 for a win.

The sixth over by Mishra added 17 to the total including two sixes--one by Jayawardane over mid wicket and the other by Pomersbach again over mid wicket.

51 required off 5 overs; Maharoof's over added 12 to the total including a six by Pomersbach over square leg. It has started raining.

39 required of 24 balls; Kings XI has a chance here to win;

Bhatia bowled the 8th over giving just 3 runs in the first 5 balls. It was raining heavily now. If the match is stopped, the scores are equal. But the match is going on; Jayawardane hit a six of the last ball of the 8th over to take the score to 94, 6 runs beyond Delhi's score.

Umpires discuss and ask the players to leave; the batsmen left the ground; Delhi team couldn't believe, still in the ground expecting the umpires to call the batsmen; the groundsmen did not bring the covers despite umpires call to do so; Yuvaraj Singh comes to the centre asking the groundsmen to put the covers in the pitch.

Finally, Kings XI Punjab win by 6 runs--strange that a team batting second wins by runs.

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Match 40
Venue: Delhi
Date: May 17, 2008
Teams: Delhi Daredevils and Kings XI Punjab
Captains: Virendra Segwag and Yuvaraj Singh
Toss: Delhi Daredevils and decided to bat
Result: Kings XI Punjab won by 6 runs (D/L Method) (with 7 wickets in hand)
Man of the Match: DPMD Jayawardane off Kings XI Punjab (Sri Lanka)
Points: Kings XI Punjab-2; Delhi Daredevils-0
Score:

Delhi Daredevils 118 for 4 in 11 overs (G Gambhir 40, V Sehwag 51 not out, S Dhawan 8, TM Dilshan 8, MF Maharoof 0, Shoaib Malik 1 not out, Extras-10 (lb 2, wide 7, nb 1), S Sreesanth 3-0-33-0, IK Pathan 2-0-13-0, VRV Singh 2-0-33-0, RR Powar 2-0-22-2, PP Chawla 1-0-13-0, JR Hopes 1-0-2-2) lost to Kings XI Punjab (revised target as per D/L Method-123 in 11 overs; when rain stopped play in the 8th over last ball, they should have been in 89 with the loss of 3 wickets) 94 for 3 in 8 overs (SE Marsh 2, JR Hopes 4, Yuvraj Singh 23, DPMD Jayawardene 36 not out, LA Pomersbach 25 not out, Extras-4 (lb 2, wide 2), GD McGrath 2-0-18-1, P Sangwan 1-0-12-1, A Mishra 2-0-21-1, V Segwag 1-0-22-0, MF Maharoof 1-0-11-0, R Bhatia 1-0-8-0)