Kolkata Knight Riders v Rajasthan Royals, IPL, Cape Town
The Bulletin by Sidharth MongaApril 23, 2009
20 overs Rajasthan Royals 150 for 6 (Yusuf 42, Mendis 2-19) v Kolkata Knight Riders
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
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How possibly can Kolkata Knight Riders explain not having played Ajantha Mendis in the first two games? In a four-over spell of 19 runs, which included the wickets of two of the most dangerous Rajasthan Royals batsmen in one over, he pulled back a rollicking start set on the back of Yusuf Pathan's reprise of some of his last year's form. But in an innings that swayed this way and that, an 18-run last over took Rajasthan to the 150-mark, believed to be a par total.
Mendis' was not the only double-strike in the innings. Anureet Singh, the Railways medium-pacer, and Ishant Sharma had taken out the newcomers Abhishek Raut and Rob Quiney in three balls to give Rajasthan their second poor start of the tournament. The changes were necessitated by a growing concern over some of the Indian domestic batsmen's capabilities on the bouncier pitches of South Africa.
But Yusuf put any such doubts over his credentials to rest as soon as he came in to bat. A monstrous straight six off Ishant off the third ball he faced was followed by an across-the-line boundary off the next ball. The next ball he faced, Yusuf tried to spoil a decent debut by Anureet through a swivel-pulled six. Ajit Agarkar was the next in line, and he suffered the worst treatment, going for three boundaries in four balls. From 14 for 2 in 2.2 overs, Yusuf had taken Rajasthan to 54 for 2 at the end of Powerplay through a brilliant counterattack.
But that's when Mendis came on. The ball didn't turn big, but there were enough variations to trouble batsmen who were looking to force the pace. Yusuf did manage to slog-sweep a googly he read early, but the next time he tried the same shot, he top-edged the carrom ball to third man. Yusuf scored 42 at two a ball.
Five balls earlier Graeme Smith, the most experienced Rajasthan batsman, had played all around a full legbreak from Mendis, edging it onto his pad and through to Chris Gayle at first slip. Smith had stayed quiet, letting Yusuf do all the talking, and scored 15 off 20.
Mendis, helped ably by Sourav Ganguly and Gayle - who took the pace off the ball - applied a choke hold after that. Following that slog-swept four by Yusuf off Mendis, Rajasthan had to wait for 49 balls for their next boundary, as Dimitri Mascarenhas and Ravindra Jadeja struggled to read Mendis and push others. From 70 for 2 in eight overs, they went to 93 for 4 in 13 overs by the time Mendis was done with his four overs. Gayle was not the insignificant contributor by a long margin, giving away only 20 runs in his four overs.
Ishant and Anureet came back to remove Mascarenhas and Jadeja, who had consumed a lot of time and balls in getting set, before they could hurt the comeback made by Kolkata. Only 62 runs came in 11 overs, before Anureet's debut was spoiled by another debutant Abhishek Raut, who hit two sixes and a four in the last over.
Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo
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