Kolkatta Knight Riders, fought seriously but had to fail more than a lot of times. But today, kolkatta managed to register their second victory in IPL 2009. Kolkatta won a close match against the powerful Chennai Super Kings team led by the Indian Captain Dhoni. A dazzling batting display by Brad Hodge and Brendon McCullam gave Kolkata a victory at last at the fag end of this IPL. Unfazed by a daunting target of 189, they triumphed over Chennai by 7 wickets at the end.
Earlier, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni and a little cameo by Albie Morkel propelled CSK to a total of 188. But the night belonged to the KKR batsmen who stole the show in the penultimate over of the match.
Brad Hodge teamed up with Wridhiman Saha to launch an all out attack during the last 5 overs to amass 58 runs decimating the Chennai Super Kings bowlers. It was CSK’s Lakshmipathy Balaji who bore the maximum brunt of KKR beating. If Saha was severe on him in the 17th over plundering 14 runs, Hodge went a step further when Balaji returned on the 19th to pile up 19 runs off it. Those two big overs, coupled with slack fielding by CSK during the death overs sealed the game in favour of KKR.
But it all started with McCullum at the top. He cracked a 48-ball 81 runs (a Batting Momentum or BM of 137) which paved the way for Hodge and others to go all out after the CSK bowling. Playing sensible cricket, McCullum and Hodge carefully avoided being extravagant against Muttiah Muralitharan, but didn’t spare the other bowlers of CSK in their chase. Hodge remained unbeaten on 77 runs off 44 balls (BM of 135) for which he was awarded the Man of the Match.
The loss dented CSK’s charge to the semi-finals as they now face a must-win situation in their last match.
