Match 41: RC v. KKR: Taylor kep RC's hope alive! KKR still in Trouble!

Scoreboard:

Match # 41
Date: Tuesday May 12, 2009
Teams: Bangalore Royal Challengers v. Kolkata Knight Riders
Captains: Kumble and McCullum
Toss: RC, decided to field
Venue: SuperSport Park, Centurion
Result: RC won by 6 wkts with 4 balls remaining
Points: RC 2; KKR 0
Man of the Match: Taylor off RC

Kolkata Knight Riders Innings:

Batsman	How Out	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
McCullum	Not Out	84	64	10	2
Ganguly	c Boucher b Vinaykumar	4	6	1	0
Ghosh	c Boucher b Vinaykumar	7	7	1	0
D Hussey	b Akhil	43	27	3	2
A Matthews	c Kohli b Kumble	16	13	2	0
Saha	Not Out	10	5	0	1
Extras	(b 5, w 2, nb 2)	9	-	-	-
Total	for 4 wkts in 20 overs	173	-	-	-

Fall of Wickets: 1-13 (Ganguly, 2.3 ov), 2-21 (Ghosh, 4.2 ov), 3-91 (Hussey, 13.2 ov), 4-134 (Mathews, 17.3 ov)

Bowler	O	M	R	W
Vinaykumar	4	0	33	2
Kallis	4	0	40	0
Ryder	4	0	25	0
Kumble	4	0	28	1
Appanna	1	0	10	0
Akhil	3	0	32	1

Royal Challengers Innings:

Batsman	How Out	Runs	Balls	4s	6s
Ryder	c Ganguly b Agarkar	22	20	3	0
Kallis	c McCullum b M Karthik	32	34	4	1
Uthappa	c Matthews b M Karthik	7	9	0	0
Taylor	Not Out	81	33	7	5
Dravid	c & b Mendis	12	12	1	0
Boucher	Not Out	13	10	0	1
Extras	(lb 1, w 6, nb 2)	9	-	-	-
Total	for 4 wkts in 19.2 overs	176	-	-	-

Fall of Wickets: 1-58 (Kallis, 8.2 ov), 2-63 (Ryder, 9.2 ov), 3-74 (Uthappa, 10.6 ov), 4-122 (Dravid, 15.4 ov)

Bowler	O	M	R	W
I Sharma	4	0	40	0
Mendis	4	0	21	1
Agarkar	4	0	45	1
Matthews	2.2	0	31	0
D Hussey	1	0	10	0
M Karthik	4	0	28	2

Will not go back to SA until KKR wins: Shahrukh Khan

"If my team continues to lose like this, I am not going back to South Africa. I will go only when they play well and win. But once they come back, I'll call them over and ask what went wrong with them," Shah Rukh said here.


Knight Riders lost their recent match against Bangalore Royal challengers in a closely fought battle. Whether King Khan is there or not, it does not matter, KKR keep losing the matches. They have lost 4 matches of the 6 played so far.

"It's not that KKR is a bad team. It's a very good team. We have good players. There is immense talent in the team. But unfortunately we didn't play well. I think the top order should have made a little more effort to change the outcome of the matches."

There were so many issues in KKR. Maybe, these added to the performance of the team:

1. Multiple captaincy theory by coach John Buchanan;
2. Ganguly, the captain at that time, said he was not aware of such moves;
3. Gavaskar slamming coach for this new thoery;
4. Sharukh Khan, the owner, hits back at Gavaskar for his remarks;
5. Sharukh Khan sends apology letter to Gavasksar;
6. Captain not announced till the last moment;
7. Squad not announced till the last moment;
8. Captain changed to McCullum of NZ and Ganguly removed;
9. Internal player creates a blog and slams KKR for their policies;
10. Sanjay Bangar and Akash Chopra were sent home saying they don't fit in the current scheme of things;
11. Sharukh Khan entered into blogging and had to explain that the so called player-blogger is not true;
12. Rift within the team in terms of captaincy, team members list;
13. The team owner Sharukh Khan came back to India for voting in the election and said that he will not go back until they start winning....

With all these issues, can a team still win?