Riders thrash Challengers

BANGALORE: Kolkata seals their maiden win of the season by defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the most convincing fashion. Balaji bowled a devastated spell and took four wickets.

He was very well supported by Kallis and Lee. Chasing a stiff target of 166 Bangalore was never in a position to win the game and lost their wickets at regular intervals. Their skipper Vettori was the only one to give resistance.

Earlier in the day Knight Riders started very well. Kallis and Gambhir give them a dream start. They added 60 runs in just 6 overs After that Bisla and Gambhir continued the good work and took the score to 125 in 13.2 overs. Gambhir made fastest half century of the tournament till now.

At this stage Knight riders were looking to set a huge target but they lost their way by some tight bowling of Zaheer, Vinay and Muralidharan and just manage to post a respectable total of 165 in the end.

Brief Scores were Kolkata Knight Riders 165 for 8 (Gambhir 64, R Vinay Kumar 2-18) and Royal Challengers Bangalore 123 for 9 (Vinay Kumar 25, Balaji 4-18).

Balaji is the Man of the Match for his four wickets. Balaji: “In t20, bowlers get into the other end, today I got my momentum going. Jacques and Lee gave us the start though. It gives a lot of pleasure when you get a top player like de Villiers.”

Gautam Gambhir: “It was important for us to get on the board, we have the quality in the team, if we play to our potential, then we will be hard to beat. Balaji’s bowling today was the best I have seen in a Twenty20 competition.”

Daniel Vettori: “It was a spectacular performance from us with the ball. That opening spell from Lee, Kallis and Balaji set us back and we could not recover. It was exceptional bowling from them. We continually lost wickets.”