Although low scoring cricket matches disappoint fans to some extent, the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket tournament in South Africa has brought cheers for the bowlers in the shortest format of the game. Both spinners and pacemen have delivered some excellent spells in the four matches played so far.
In the Day 2 of IPL, it was a nightmare for the Kolkata Knight Riders when they dismissed for just 101 (in 19.4 overs) and eventually went to lose their first match to Deccan Chargers by eight wickets. For the Chargers, it was RP Singh who set up the tone of the game by claiming four wickets.
The Knight’s captain Brendon McCullum, who decided to bat first after winning the toss, only witnessed wickets tumbling one after other, and the rest is a lesson that T20 cricket is not always a hard-hitting or batsmen dominated game.
RP Singh finished with a figure 4 for 22 while the West Indian Fidel Edwards exhibited the weight of a good line and length, which conceded him only 6 runs in the allotted four overs though without success. Among others, left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha (2/14) and Kiwi all-rounder Scott Styris (2/32) too lived up to the expectation.
Australian Brad Hodge top-scored with 31 while three other batsmen Chris Gayle, Aakash Chopra, and Murali Kartik managed to reach double figures with 10, 11, 10 runs respectively.
Unlike the Riders, the Chargers only needed 13.1 overs to reach the target, Harschelle Gibbs (43 off 26) and Rohit Sharma (36 off 32) to achieve the total.
Earlier on the same day, Virender Sehwag's Delhi Daredevils thrashed Yuvraj Singh's Kings XI Punjab by 10 wickets in a rain-interrupted match. In the 12-over match, Kings XI managed to score 104 at a pace of 8.66 runs per over. But as the winning target was revised under dock Duckworth-Lewis method to 54 in six overs, Delhi openers Gautam Gambhir (15 off 13) and captain Virendra Sehwag (38 off 16) brought the winning note in 4.5 overs.
However, here it was yet again the bowlers, especially the Daredevils’ Daniel Vettori who took 3 crucial wickets in his three-over spell giving just 15 runs to restrict Punjab’s strong batting line-up.
The opening day matches had given the early sign that this edition of IPL might see some more low-scoring matches, considering the uneven bounce of the South African wickets. First it was the Mumbai Indians who scored a 19-run win over Chennai Super Kings, in which Lasith Malinga 3/15 and Jayasuriya 2/34 came handy not letting the Dhoni-led Chennai team to reach the 165/7.
The other match between Bangalore Royal Challengers and defending Champion Rajasthan Royals was even more surprising, in which the Shane Warne led Royals bundled out for just 58 runs, the lowest score in IPL.
Leg-spinner Anil Kumble’s 5 for 5 made all to overlook Royal Challengers’ last year failure. Defending a meagre total of 134, bowlers claimed wicket after wicket to start Bangalore’s IPL run with a winning note. Mentionable that Shane Warne too had a bowling session finishing 2 for 18.
Today (April 20) match to be played: Royal Challengers v Chennai Super Kings
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