New Delhi: Two time champions Kolkata Knight Riders’ campaign in Indian Premier League 9 ended after going down to Sunrisers Hyderabad by 22 runs in the eliminator here on Wednesday.

Famed Hyderabad’s bowling line-up led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar with three wickets, proved too good for the KKR batsmen, who failed to put up a fight to finish at 140/8 in their 20 overs.

Chasing 163, KKR were off an identical start as Hyderabad losing in-form opener Robin Uthappa (11) cheaply before skipper Gautam Gambhir (28) and all-rounder Colin Munroe (16) took the team to 46/1 in the powerplay.

Gambhir and Munroe batted sensibly to put on 38 runs for the second wicket before the New Zealander perished to a silly run out off a sensational throw from Yuvraj Singh.

Playing at his home ground, Gambhir failed to read the bounce of the Kotla track as he miscued a short delivery from Ben Cutting.

With KKR needing 99 from the last 10 overs, the team landed in further trouble as incoming batsman Yusuf Pathan (2) fell to a beautiful running catch from Bhuvneshwar Kumar off Moises Henriques.

Next in Manish Pandey (36) and Suryakumar Yadav (23) batted sensibly to take the team past the 100-run mark by the 14th over.

Yadav, who survived a scare on 15, when pacer Mustafizur Rahman dropped him at the third man boundary, could add only eight runs before a brilliant running catch from Shikhar Dhawan off Henriques ended the 46-run fifth wicket stand.

Requiring 39 from the last three, Pandey, in his attempt to cope with the growing run-rate fell to a miscued shot off Bhuvneshwar after adding only 10 runs with Rajagopal Sathish (8).

With hopes of reaching the second qualifier fading, West Indian Jason Holder (6) joined Sathish but the duo could do little as Bhuvneshwar packed them off in the last over.

Tailenders Sunil Narine and Morne Morkel failed to trouble the scores as the side fell short by 22 runs to bow out of the cash-rich tournament.

For Hyderabad, Bhuvneshwar was the wrecker-in-chief with three wickets while Henriques took two. Cutting and Barinder Sran chipped in with a wicket each.

Earlier, KKR restricted Sunrisers to 162/8 after sending them to bat.

Kuldeep Yadav put up yet another impressive show with three wickets to break the backbone of the Sunrisers batting, who were off to a disappointing start.

Yuvraj (44) and Henriques (31) top-scored for Hyderabad after the side lost the key wicket of in-form opener Dhawan (10) cheaply.

After losing Dhawan, skipper David Warner (28), who was dropped by Pathan in the fifth over, resurrected the innings with incoming batsman Henriques to take the team to 43/1 in the powerplay.

Both the Australians pounced on the easy offerings from the KKR bowlers to raise a 59-run stand for the second wicket before Henriques was brilliantly caught and bowled by Yadav.

With Hyderabad struggling at 71/3 after 10 overs, incoming batsmen Yuvraj and Deepak Hooda (21) took the attack to the opposition with some glorious shots to take the team past the 100-run mark at the start of the 15th over.

The left-right combination went on milking runs at will before the Haryana batter threw away his wicket to a silly run-out ending the 49-run fourth wicket stand.

Coming in next, Aussie all-rounder Cutting failed to trouble the scorers as Yadav packed him with the first ball of his second spell to be beautifully stumped by Uthappa.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha (7) then joined Yuvraj in the middle and the duo added a quickfire 21 runs for the sixth wicket before the Punjab southpaw was clean bowled by Jason Holder.

All-rounder Bipul Sharma (14) hit a couple of lusty sixes off Morne Morkel in the final over to take Hyderabad to 162/8.

For KKR, Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets while Holder and Morkel chipped in with two wickets each.

The Sunrisers will now take on Gujarat Lions in the second qualifier on Friday for a place in Sunday’s final against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 162/8 (Yuvraj Singh 44, Moises Henriques 31, David Warner 28, Kuldeep Yadav 3/35) vs Kolkata Knight Riders 140/8 (Manish Pandey 36, Gautam Gambhir 28, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/19, Moises Henriques 2/19)

(IANS)

Bengaluru: With the conclusion of the league phase, the stage is all set for the Indian Premier League (IPL) play-offs, as a rampaging Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) take on Gujarat Lions in the first qualifier here on Tuesday.

Having won four of their last league games on the trot, the Virat Kohli-led RCB finished on the second spot on the points table while Suresh Raina’s Gujarat Lions have had a successful debut campaign to atop the standings.

Going into Tuesday’s clash at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here, both the sides will have an advantage. While the winning team will book a place in the final, the losing team will get to play in the second qualifier against the winner of the eliminator for a place in the title clash.

In the first qualifier, RCB will not only have the advantage of playing the high pressure game on their home ground but also can take solace from their all-round effort in the six-wicket win against Delhi Daredevils on Sunday.

The Bangalore franchise, runners-up in 2009 and 2011, will hope for a solid start from the in-form batting trio of skipper Kohli, West Indian Chris Gayle and South African veteran AB de Villiers.

With 919 runs so far in the tournament, Kohli, who has amassed four tons and five fifties, is a shy away from breaking another IPL record of becoming first to score 1,000 runs in an IPL edition.

Lokesh Rahul, Shane Watson and youngster Sachin Baby form a formidable middle order followed by the likes of all-rounder Stuart Binny.

The bowling department which was a weak link for the side in the earlier part of the league phase, has also come to the party towards the business end with the pace-spin duo of Watson and Yuzvendra Chahal among the top five wicket-takers.

With 19 wickets so far, leg-spinner Chahal is the purple cap holder while Australian veteran all-rounder Watson, with 16 wickets is fifth.

On the other hand, Raina has led debutants Gujarat from the front with back-to-back half centuries in the final two league matches to finish on top of the standings.

Apart from Raina, the batting will centre around West Indian Dwayne Smith, former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum, Australian Aaron Finch and stumper Dinesh Karthik.

Gujarat also boasts of quality all-rounders in Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja, who can add enough firepower in the lower order.

The bowling department has variety in its ranks with chinaman Shivil Kaushik being one of the finds of the tournament while veteran medium pacer Praveen Kumar has also been impressive with his new ball partner Dhawal Kulkarni.

Smith, with his gentle medium pace has been an effective weapon for Raina to contain the rival batters while the left-arm spin of Jadeja and Shadab Jakati will be good test for the RCB batters, who will relish playing at the home turf.

(IANS)

Raipur: Riding on Karun Nair’s unbeaten 83, Delhi Daredevils not only beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets but also kept themselves in the hunt for the Indian Premier League (IPL) play-offs at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium here on Friday.

Nair, who was dropped on 51 by Hyderabad skipper David Warner, made the opportunity count as his 59-ball knock guided the team home in what turned out to be a nail-biting affair. His innings was laced with eight hits to the fence and three over it.

Chasing 159, Delhi got off to a poor start losing in-form Quinton de Kock (2) cheaply as incoming batsman Nair and opener Rishabh Pant found the going tough against Hyderabad’s disciplined bowling attack to reach 37 in the powerplay.

Left-arm pacer Barinder Sran, who replaced injured Ashish Nehra in the playing XI, gave Sunrisers the perfect start by taking the key wicket of the South African stumper in the very second over.

Nair and Pant batted sensibly to put on 73 runs for the second wicket before a silly mix-up in the 12th over accounted for the southpaw’s run out for a 26-ball 32 which included three hits to the fence.

Nair, who was joined by South African Jean-Paul Duminy, then went on to score his third half-century of the season before David Warner dropped him off Sran.

Duminy, who also got a life on 17 when Bhuvneswar Kumar dropped a sitter at sweeper cover off Mustafizur Rahman, however, failed to make the opportunity count as Warner made no mistake this time around to latch on to the top edge off Sran.

Nair, who put on 35 runs for the third wicket with Duminy, started to break the shackles as the 24-year-old blasted Sran for two mammoth sixes in the same over.

West Indian power-hitter Carlos Brathwaite, who joined the Rajasthan batsman, was unlucky to perish for a seven-ball 10 off a brilliant flying catch by Sran at third man boundary off Rahman.

Needing 16 off the last 10 balls, young Sanju Samson joined Nair and the duo completed the formalities in style, with Nair hitting consecutive boundaries to seal the deal in the hosts’ favour.

For the visitors, Sran and Rahman were the pick of the bowlers picking two and one wicket respectively.

Earlier, Warner headlined with a fine 73-run knock to pull Sunrisers Hyderabad to 158/7 in their 20 overs.

Hyderabad got off to a decent start after Delhi skipper Zaheer Khan sent them in.

The opening partnership of Shikhar Dhawan and Warner took the score to a promising 46 in six overs.

Warner scored bulk of the runs, receiving most of the strike. He eventually hit eight fours and a six in his 56-ball knock.

But the rhythm was snapped when Dhawan (10) was run out because of some athletic fielding by Carlos Brathwaite. He was the most successful bowler, picking up two wickets for 27 runs of his four overs.

The West Indian stopped the ball with his left hand on his follow through and turned around to knock down the stumps while still on the turf, catching an over enthusiastic Dhawan short of his crease.

That triggered a double break, as four balls later, in the next over, Deepak Hooda (1) was run out.

This time Amit Mishra struck with a direct hit on the non-striker’s end after following Warners push towards short cover.

Warner’s responsibility increased after being involved in two run outs of his partners.

He hoped to put together a solid stand with Yuvraj Singh (10).

But the veteran southpaw ragged a away going balls into his stumps to leave his team 66/3 in 9.3 overs.

Warner completed his half century in the 12th over with a single towards midwicket of Brathwaite.

And celebrated it with a huge six over long-on.

Warner partially resurrected the innings with a 24-ball 39 run fourth wicket partnership with fellow Australian Moises Henriques.

But Henriques (18) was dismissed trying to hit a six, caught at the midwicket boundary in the 14th over, reducing his team at 105/4.

But the most pivotal moment of the innings came when Warner was caught at third man by Mishra off Brathwaite in the 16th over.

Eoin Morgan (14) started brightly but also perished soon. Naman Ojha (16 not out) struck some bold shots to guide the team past 150.

Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 158/7 (David Warner 73, Moises Henriques 18, Carlos Brathwaite 2/27) vs Delhi Daredevils 161/4 (Karun Nair 83, Rishabh Pant 32, Barinder Sran 2/34).

(IANS)

Bengaluru: Hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) dethroned Kings XI Punjab on early Thursday by 91 runs in a must-win league tie to keep its hopes of a place in play-offs alive in the IPL-9 season at the Chinnaswamy stadium here.

Chasing an imposing target of 212 in 15 overs RCB had set by piling up a whopping 211 for three wickets in 15 overs after heavy rain delayed the match by 110 minutes on Wednesday night, Kings scrambled to make 120 for 9 wickets in 14 overs, when sudden rain again forced the umpires to call off the match.

The third consecutive victory propelled the home team to the second position from fifth position in the points table, with 14 points from seven wins in 13 games by virtue of its record net run rate of +0.926, ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Mumbai Indians (MI) and Gujarat Lions (GL) who all have 14 points each with 7 wins.

Chances of a berth in semis brightening up with a hat-trick of victories, RCB will play its last league tie against Delhi Daredevils on May 22 at Raipur in Chattisgarh to stay on the course.

After RCB’s openers Chris Gayle and skipper Virat Kohli rattled the Kings XI bowlers to register a record 149-run first wicket partnership in 67 balls (11.1 overs), it was the turn of Royal bowlers to dominate the game by unsettling the latter’s batsmen and making the contest one-sided.

As Kings lost wickets at regular intervals, its top and middle order failed again, with Wriddhiman Saha being the top scorer at 24 in 10 balls.

RCB’s only leggi Yuzvendra Chala was the most successful bowler taking four wickets in three overs for 25 runs, while Shane Watson and S. Arvind bagged two each in two overs each.

Earlier, put to bat by Kings XI skipper Murali Vijay who opted to field despite winning the toss, man-of-the-match Kohli set a new record by scoring his fourth century (113 in 50 balls with 8 sixes and 12 fours) in this IPL season and Chris Gayle returned to form by hitting 73 in 32 balls with 8 sixes and four boundaries.

Desperate efforts by Vijay to break the partnership or get either of them out early failed as Kolhi and Gayle were in full cry and batted with disdain.

While the first 50 came in 4.4 overs of the six-over power play, the first 100 of RCB’s innings came in 8.5 overs.

Though Vijay used as many as five bowlers to contain the openers, there was no respite for Kings till Gayle got caught by David Miller of Arshad Patel ball in 11 over when RCB score was 147 on the board.

After in-form AB de Villiers was bowled for a duck in 12th over, keeper K.L. Rahul joined Kohli to take the score to 199 when the skipper was caught by Miller off Sandeep Sharma ball at 113 comprising 8 sixes and 12 fours in just 50 balls.

Rahul and Kohli were involved in a 45-run third wicket partnership in 15 balls.

Rahul remained till the end at 16 not out.

Patel, Sharma and Abbot of Kings shared one wicket each of RCB’s batters.

RCB retained the same team that won by 9 wickets over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Kolkata on May 16, while Punjab made three changes, bringing in Farhaan Behardien, Kyle Abbot and K.C. Cariappa in place of Glen Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Anureet Singh.

(IANS)

The tickets of the VIVO Indian Premier League 2016 Qualifier 1 and Final will be available on www.iplt20.com, on 24th May, 2016.

Kolkata: Virat Kohli and A.B. de Villiers once again delivered the goods with their bats as their Royal Challengers Bangalore romped home with 9 wickets to spare against Kolkata Knight Riders in an Indian Premier League (IPL) contest at the Eden Gardens here on Monday.

Kohli and de Villiers remained not out on 75 and 59 respectively while Chris Gayle contributed with a 31-ball 49. The Kohli-de Villiers partnership yielded 115 runs for the men in red and black.

With the win, Bangalore stay alive in the competition with 6 wins from 12 games.

Chasing Kolkata’s 183/5, they got off to a flyer as Gayle – who had been in slumber for much of this season – smashed the ball to all parts of the ground.

The burly Jamaican first took on Andre Russell hitting him for 17 in the third over and then clubbed Sunil Narine for two consecutive fours in the fifth.

After six overs, Bangalore were cruising at 63 for no loss but then Gayle was adjudged leg-before-wicket off a Narine delivery.

It was difficult to understand who the home team were as chants of ‘Kohli, Kohli’ went up time and again around the packed stadium as the Bangalore captain came in – and did not disappoint either as he picked the boundaries at regular intervals. However, Kohli was dropped at 32 by his opposite number Gautam Gambhir.

The miss proved costly as Kohli got to yet another half-century, while his partner at the other end – de Villiers – started clobbering them too.

Before long, the visitors were in touching distance of the total and the duo did the needful with 8 balls to spare.

Earlier twin fifties from Gambhir (51) and Manish Pandey (50) aided by Russell’s late blitz of 19-ball 39 helped Kolkata get to a fighting total.

Even though the hosts lost Robin Uthappa (2) early, Gambhir manage to pick the gaps along with Pandey. By the end of the powerplay, the team was 51/1.

The onslaught continued in the next over as legspinner Yuzvendra Chahal was carved for 16.

Bangalore then pulled things back a little thereafter and also grabbed the vital wicket of Gambhir who got run-out shortly after getting to his fifty.

Thereafter, new man Yusuf Pathan and the already set Pandey failed to pierce the gaps. Runs dried down and Pandey was holed out in the deep trying to up the run-rate. Yusuf (6) too was out stumped.

Next to perish was Suryakumar Yadav (5) who was caught at long on by Iqbal Abdulla. The flurry of wickets also put a brake on the scoring rate much to the relief of Bangalore.

But Shakib Al Hasan and Russell enthralled the strong Eden crowd with some powerhitting to propel Kolkata to such a score. The last three overs yielded 38 runs for the home side.

Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 183/5 (Gautam Gambhir 51, Manish Pandey 50; Sreenath Aravind 2/41) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: 186/1 (Virat Kohli 75, AB de Villiers 59)

(IANS)

Visakhapatnam: Riding on promising all-rounder Krunal Pandya’s quick-fire 86, followed by an impressive bowling performance, Mumbai Indians outclassed Delhi Daredevils by 80 runs in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Sunday.

Batting first, Krunal smashed his maiden IPL half-century to guide the defending champions to massive 206/4 in 20 overs.

In reply, Delhi lost wickets at regular intervals as they were bundled out for 126 in 19.1 overs. Jasprit Bumrah (3-13) and Krunal (2-15) were the pick of the bowlers for Mumbai while Harbhajan Singh and R. Vinay Kumar claimed one wicket each.

The win ensures Mumbai keep their play-off hopes alive as they climbed to the third spot in the points table.

Chasing an imposing target of 207, Delhi got off to a poor start losing opener Mayank Agarwal (8) in the second over itself.

His opening partner Quinton de Kock (40) played positively from there on but lost partners at the other end as Karun Nair (8), Sanju Samson (6) fell cheaply to have the visitors in trouble at 60/3 in eighth over.

As the required run-rate climbed high with every ball bowled, de Kock trying to up the scoring rate also fell to left-arm spinner Krunal in the 10th over. The South African promising opener in his 28-ball innings struck four boundaries and two sixes.

Incoming young batsmen Rishabh Pant (23) played a short innings but failed to convert the start into a big one as his dismissal came after seamer Bumrah had Jean-Paul Duminy (9) caught by wicket-keeper Jos Buttler in the 13th over.

There was more trouble for the visitors as wickets kept on tumbling and the required rate climbed high to put more pressure on the incoming lower-order batsmen.

Chris Morris played a 16-ball 20 in the end but was not enough as his side surrendered to a dominant Mumbai side.

Earlier put into bat, openers Rohit Sharma (31) and Martin Guptill (48) helped the defending champions get off to a decent start scoring 45 runs without losing any wickets after the completion of powerplay.

But the seventh over of the innings saw a twist in the tale – leg-spinner Amit Mishra brought the first breakthrough dismissing Mumbai skipper Rohit when Mumbai were 46/1 in 6.3 overs.

Hard-hitting left-hander Krunal who was promoted up the order at No.3 to keep the run flow going, did not disappoint his team. He played his natural game, striking a couple of boundaries and sixes to help the team keep a healthy run-rate.

He was well supported on the other end by experienced Kiwi batsman Guptill as the duo played sensibly to help team cross the 80-run mark after 10 overs.

The duo smashed 23 runs in the 13th over bowled by leg-spinner Imran Tahir to take team over 100-run mark in style.

Krunal then – with a couple of big blows – brought up his maiden IPL half-century in just 22 balls.

The impressive 96-run partnership for the second wicket came to an end in the 15th over when Guptill looking to strike one over long on was caught by Karun Nair off the bowling off Zaheer Khan. The hosts were 144/2 then.

Despite wickets at the other end, Krunal smashed it to all parts of the ground, but eventually in the 18th over, Chris Morris finally got rid of the 25-year-old to put a check on the run flow.

During his maiden IPL half-century, the left-handed batsman struck seven boundaries and six sixes.

In the dying overs the innings, Buttler (18 not out) and Ambati Rayudu (13 not out) played useful cameos to take the team past 200-run mark.

Morris (2-34) was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi as the spinning trio of Shahbaz Nadeem (2-42), Amit Mishra (1-42) and Tahir (0-59) proved expensive. Zaheer Khan was economical, having conceded 23 runs in four overs.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians: 206/4 in 20 overs (Krunal Pandya 86; Chris Morris 2/34) vs Delhi Daredevils 126 in 19.1 overs (Quinton de Kock 40; Jasprit Bumrah 3-13, Krunal Pandya 2-15)

(IANS)