Every once in a while, a tournament of this length throws up a game that makes for not so interesting viewing for the fans and turns out to be a match to be forgotten for at least one of the teams involved. Rajasthan Royals had had to endure such a match against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.
Being put into bat on a pitch that had a little of something for everybody, the Royals batsmen failed to step up to the plate. Once the opening partnership was dissolved, the rest of the side followed very quickly and lasted all of 15.2 overs for their 81 runs.
This was Rajasthan’s second-lowest score in the history of IPL cricket and it came only a couple of days after they had been beaten by the same opposition at Jaipur. This time, it was the hot and muggy climate of Kolkata that seemed to have pushed them back.
Shane Watson was sent to open the innings after he had earlier been pushed down to four but once L Balaji had sent him back for 11, there was no looking back for the team. Balaji produced a delivery that would have had the best of the batsmen groping as it pitched on the middle-stump line and threatened to come into the batsman before leaving him and taking the bail along.
The spinners came into their own soon enough, and where the side wasn’t helped were the two run-outs – Faiz Fazal was dismissed to a brilliant piece of work from Iqbal Abdulla while Abhishek Raut ran blind after hitting the ball and was left stranded.
Ashok Menaria top-scored for the Royals with a 21 but with Ross Taylor failing to get going at his number six position and Shakib al Hasan and Balaji running through the tail, the Royals lost their last six wickets for 14 runs.
Balaji ended with three wickets.
Not that it was made any easy for the Knight Riders. Shaun Tait, who had come into the side in place of the injured Johan Botha got rid of Jacques Kallis early and in company of Warne and Watson, cramped the Kolkata batsmen for room and runs. Only 41 came off the first ten overs of the game, but with only two wickets down and Gambhir still at the crease, it was a matter of time.
That is exactly how it turned out to be, with the Kolkata captain taking on the second-string bowlers once they came on into the attack.
The win was achieved in the 14th over and with eight wickets standing.