Mathews' four-wicket haul helps KKR restrict RCB at 135 for 7
Angelo Mathews returned with a four-wicket haul to help Kolkata Knight Riders restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore at 135 for seven in their Indian Premier League match at a packed Eden Gardens here today.
Cheered by Shah Rukh Khan from the stands, Knight Riders kept on taking wickets at regular intervals with Mathews (four for 19) emerging as the wrecker-in-chief. He was brilliantly supported by left-arm spinner Murali Kartik (two for 22).
For RCB, Jacques Kallis anchored the ship with a defiant 65 not out as Knight Riders with a thinking captain in Sourav Ganguly succeeded in containing the Bangalore outfit.
The South African all-rounder hit six boundaries in his 52-ball knock, even as Knight Riders had a disciplined attack in Mathews, Kartik.
Put into bat, Royal Challengers had a tentative first over with Kallis opening the proceedings with Goswami. The diminutive southpaw had some difficulty facing short balls.
Charl Langeveldt and Ishant Sharma tested Goswami with pace and bounce before he became the victim of the former off a short delivery to give the first breakthrough at 15 for one.
Goswami (eight) miscued one short delivery and was caught by Sharma at third man as his 10 balls innings came to a close in which he had two boundaries.
More pressure mounted on the Bangalore side with Sharma bowling six dot balls to Manish Pandey to complete a fine two over spell of 2-0-7-0.
The lanky Delhi pacer had to wait for his first breakthrough but his second over that conceded only a wide was enough to mount pressure on Pandey who departed in the very next over with RCB sliding to 17 for two in no time.
In desperation to open his account, Pandey (0) dragged one onto his stumps as Mathews got his first wicket in his third ball. This was a poor start for the youngster who had shot into limelight in the last edition, hitting first century by an Indian.
Left-arm spinner Kartik then scalped two wickets from his two overs as Royal challengers were tottering at 20 for three. Kartik first scalped Kohli (2) as he charged down the track only to find Mathews near the rope. English recruit Eoin Morgan was the next to go as in his pursuit for a reverse sweep he was castled by Kartik.
Opener Kallis, however, remained unruffled at the other end as he along with another veteran Rahul Dravid tried to make some repair work. But thinking skipper Ganguly brought in Mathews again and the Sri Lankan medium pacer bowled Dravid who inside-edged a low full toss to see his team slip to 73 for five.
The duo yielded 38 runs for the fifth wicket as Dravid departed for 21 from 16 balls with three fours. With Ganguly rotating his bowlers, boundaries dried up for the Challengers as Mathews, who was the Man of the match in their last match against Deccan Chargers, took two more wickets in Robin Uthappa (20) and Roelof van der Merwe (1) in his last over to emerge as the wrecker-in-chief.
