In a tense finish to a low scoring match of the Indian T20 Cricket League 2022 at the DY Patil stadium on Wednesday night, Team Bangalore got over the finish line in a thrilling end with three wickets and four balls to spare against Kolkata, who fought hard all along the way but could not do much with a poor total they conjured in the first half of the match.
After Sri Lanka's star spin-bowling all-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga and uncapped Indian bowler Akash Deep shared 7 wickets between them, Bangalore had their share of troubles in a small chase on a tricky pitch at the DY Patil stadium for the Match No 7.
At a venue where competing teams totalled more than 400 in two innings in the last match, crossing the 200-run mark each, both Bangalore and Kolkata suffered top order collapses in the powerplays which set the course of the match.
Kolkata were bowled out for a paltry 128 from their 18.5 overs, and in their reply, Bangalore huffed and puffed but eventually got over the finish line, courtesy some really courageous efforts from the likes of Shahbaz Ahmed, David Willey (18) and Sherfane Rutherford (28).
All three of Shahbaz, Willy and Rutherford played vital looks after Bangalore were left reeling at 17/3 in 2.1 overs. New Zealand fast bowler Tim Southee had Faf du Plessis caught by Ajinkya Rahane for five while the Bangalore wicketkeeper-batsman Anuj Rawat was beaten by the pace and bounce from Umesh Yadav, and was also caught behind for a second-ball duck.
Former Bangalore captain V Kohlii began on an aggressive note hitting a couple of boundaries but Yadav had his man in the third over of the contest, getting the batting maestro caught behind for a 7-ball 12.
In a desperate need of revival, Bangalore were bolstered with the association of Willey and Rutherford, who were cautious in putting up a strong resistance that lasted almost 9 overs while adding 45 runs for the fourth wicket, without showing any urgency of scoring runs or taking any unwanted risk.
Their partnership was broken on the final ball of the 11th over, following which Ahmed came out and swung his bat to a great impact, scoring a quickfire 27 from 20 balls with the help of 3 sixes before he was dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy.
Ahmed danced down the wicket to hit the Kolkata spinner out of the park but was beaten comprehensively, and Sheldon Jackson did the rest.
When Ahmed was dismissed, Bangalore needed another 17 runs from the final two overs to win. The senior wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik, who was strategically kept waiting on the bench for such a situation, came to the fore as he cracked two boundaries in the penultimate over from Venkatesh Iyer and hit another boundary and a six on the first two deliveries of the final over from Andre Russell to finish the game in the favour of Bangalore.
Earlier in the contest, Mohammed Siraj struck early to give Bangalore an early advantage by accounting for his India teammate Ajinkya Rahane, who could manage only 9 but Kolkata were let down by their middle-order which could not put up any sort of resistance against a rampaging Bangalore bowling attack.
Kolkata captain Shreyas Iyer fell for a 10-ball 13, Nitish Rana hit one boundary and a six before perishing for a 5-ball 10 whereas pinch-hitter Sunil Narine hit 12 from 8 balls before being dismissed by Hasaranga.
On a challenging pitch at the DY Patil Stadium which saw Kolkata batsmen going for the big, scoring shots following their ‘play aggressive cricket’ policy, and not adjusting their game as per the nature of the surface which was of spongy bounce, Hasaranga returned with 4-0-20-4, accounting for the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Sunil Narine, Sheldon Jackson and Tim Southee.
The right-arm Bihar fast bowler Akash Deep was very effective with the ball at the start of his spell, but eventually proved to be costly, giving away 45 runs from 3.5 overs while snaffling 3 wickets in the form of Venkatesh Iyer, Nitish Rana and Umesh Yadav.
Kolkata had their all-rounder Andre Russell top scoring for them with an 18-ball 25 studded with 3 sixes and a boundary whereas tailend batsmen Umesh Yadav and Varun Chakraborty also got vital scores. Yadav hit 2 boundaries and a six to score 18 from 12 balls whereas Chakravarthy found 2 boundaries to make 10 not out, which pushed their team’s total to 128.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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