KKR Captain B.McCullum and middle order batsman Brad Hodge smashed a quick-fire half century to lead Kolkata Knight Riders to seven wickets win over Chennai Super Kings in their second last game of IPL 2009. Most importantly this is only their second win of IPL season two. Knight Riders are long out of the tournament, buried under a heap of defeats, but their victory gave hope to other teams who are fiercely fighting for semi-final spots. Now Chennai Super Kings have to win their last game to secure their berth in the semi final. The win for KKR also given hopes for other teams who are still fighting for the semi finals spots. Chasing a tough target of 189 runs for victory, KKR captain started brilliantly smashing the ball all around the park right from beginning of KKR innings. However his opening partner Saurav Ganguly were struggling to put bat to the ball and in the end he throw his wickets away to spin magician M.Muralitharan. Ganguly dismissal brings Brad Hodge at the crease, most importantly he looks in fine touch and that helped B.McCullum somewhat to settle down to his own game. B.McCullum took 22 runs in the sixth over on the bowling of S.Tyagi smashing him for four consecutive boundaries and one huge six. Both McCullum and Brad Hodge put on 90 runs for the 2nd wicket. Shadad Jakati finally dismissed McCullum and Hodge took charge from there on. After McCullum dismissal B.Hodge took the charge of guiding KKR to victory. Hodge and Wridhimann Saha (25 off 13 balls) hit a flurry of shots in the end to see the team through. Earlier, Chennai Super Kings after electing to bat first got off to brilliant start. CSK openers P.Patel (25 runs of 19 balls) and G.Bailey (30 runs of 27 balls) put on 59 runs in just 6 overs to lay the foundation for big scores. Suresh Raina (52 runs of 36 balls) and M.S.Dhoni (40 runs of 28 balls) capitalized well and hit some lusty blows in the end to get CSK score close to 190 run mark in the end. Brad Hodge was declared Man of the Match for his brilliant 71 runs of 44 balls. Match Summary (KKR won by 7 Wickets) Chennai Super Kings – 188/3 in 20 Overs S.Raina- 52 M.S.Dhoni –40* A.Dinda – 4-0-29-1 A.Mendis– 4-0-38-0 Kolkata Knight Riders – 189/3 in 20 Overs B.McCullum- 81 B.Hodge –71 M.Muralitharan– 4-0-16-1 S.Jakati– 4-0-36-1 |
