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[Cover Point]

true battle of the losers

[ramshorns]

KKR need 56 runs more in slightly under 7 overs to put this beyond BRC's reach.

Looking at the lineup for BRC I do not fancy them chasing much more than 140.  But then KKR does not seem to even get that much.

[keep-it-cool]

Saha is good.

If he can take KKR to around 45 more from the next 5 overs, they are home against the BRC batting.

Wan Vyk looking comfortable out there too.

[dhruvdeepak]

Oh boy ...now SG gone after a princely 1 in 8 balls

I wish you had shown your articulate language, when he scored that 48.....just to show some of your famed 'neutrality'.

oh cmon man grow up. why the heck are ppl so touchy

[keep-it-cool]

KKR need 56 runs more in slightly under 7 overs to put this beyond BRC's reach.

Looking at the lineup for BRC I do not fancy them chasing much more than 140.  But then KKR does not seem to even get that much.

Exactly. That is what I am counting down.

Need 45 in 29 balls now ...should be doable if Saha and then Shukla click ..both are clean hitters.

[keep-it-cool]

100 up ....this partnership is beginning to do well 30 in 26 balls

[keep-it-cool]

THAT is the over.

Saha, Van Wyk - putting their international counterparts (barring Gayle) to shame.

[ramshorns]

KKR need 56 runs more in slightly under 7 overs to put this beyond BRC's reach.

Looking at the lineup for BRC I do not fancy them chasing much more than 140.  But then KKR does not seem to even get that much.

Exactly. That is what I am counting down.

Need 45 in 29 balls now ...should be doable if Saha and then Shukla click ..both are clean hitters.

Saha doing well.  He is their best domestic player followed closely by Shukla.

[keep-it-cool]

The old fox gets Saha.

He may very well be the next captain of BRC

[keep-it-cool]

But good hand by the kid. He should be our second keeper, if we need one for the T20 Cup.

[ramshorns]

The old fox gets Saha.

He may very well be the next captain of BRC

Yes that was a good wicket by AK to get Saha.  Sets KKR back.

[keep-it-cool]

I dont know about you guys but I like the look of most of these local players - Saha first and now Shukla - he appears completely unfazed and is a clean striker of the ball. They were just not utilised well this year or last.

[keep-it-cool]

Can they score 27 in 3 overs? That is a winning score.

[ramshorns]

Can they score 27 in 3 overs? That is a winning score.

Agarkar in.  You never know with him.  It is possible.

[keep-it-cool]

Wan Vyk doing a good job ...Agarkar just needs to strike a couple of lusty blows to take them to a winning score.

The good thing for KKR is that despite losing wickets they have kept the 140 mark within sight.

[keep-it-cool]

Finally, the XIs.

Kolkata: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Brendon McCullum (capt/ wk), 3 Brad Hodge, 4 Sourav Ganguly, 5 Laxmi Shukla, 6 Morne van Wyk, 7 Wriddhiman Saha, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Ishant Sharma, 10 Murali Kartik, 11 Ashok Dinda.

Bangalore: 1 Sreevats Goswami, 2 Jacques Kallis, 3 Kevin Pietersen (capt), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Roelof van der Merwe, 6 Mark Boucher, 7 B Akhil, 8 Praveen Kumar, 9 Pankaj Singh, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 KP Appanna.


BRC batting is very very weak.

Morne Van Wyk is an interesting selection for KKR. I like this team except for Agarkar.

How is Van Wyk interesting?
Just becoz, he is a South African?
I liked the name of Moses Henriques too......I wish he too played!

Nope. Because I've seen him play in some ODI ..and remember thinking that he can play.

[ramshorns]

Somehow...Ganguly doesn't look too focussed.
Looks quite demoralised.

Blwe:You never seize to amaze.

When Ganguly scores then all is well.   But then when he fails it is someone else's fault.  Make up your mind man!!!!

[cricket_news]

Mendis out, Kolkata bat
29 April 2009, 10:39 am



Match facts

April 29, 2009

Start time 12.30pm (10.30GMT)

Big Picture



Brendon McCullum will have to step up after Gayle's departure to prevent his team from free-falling

© Getty Images

Form guide

Bangalore: Mark Boucher cracked a brisk 36 in his first match, against Delhi, but there's little else to shout about for Bangalore. Apart from Jacques Kallis, the rest of the batsmen average below 20 with Robin Uthappa bringing up the bottom with 38 runs in five innings. There's almost no good news on the bowling front too. Their highest wicket-taker, Anil Kumble, has taken only one wicket in the last four games (after taking five in the first). Kallis has appalling figures of 1 for 135 from 11 overs.

Kolkata: Gayle is Kolkata's highest run-scorer with 107 in four innings but he's 11th among the top run-getters in the tournament. Brad Hodge hasn't pulled his weight as an overseas player - 70 runs in four matches - and neither has the captain Brendon McCullum. Ishant Sharma, with four wickets and an economy of under seven runs per over, is Kolkata's best bowler but their other medium-pacers have failed to provide adequate back-up.

Watch out for

Out-of-form captains: Bangalore picked up Pietersen for a whopping $1.55 million and made him the captain as well but he has done nothing of note in the tournament. Pietersen has scored only 80 runs in five innings but looked to have regained form against Delhi before an ill-advised switch-hit ended his cameo. He will be itching to leave the IPL with a match-winning performance. One captain who's done even worse that Pietersen is Kolkata's new leader McCullum. He's one half of a potentially devastating opening partnership with Gayle but McCullum's devastated only to the tune of 26 runs in four innings. McCullum will have to step up after Gayle's departure to prevent his team from free-falling.

Bangalore: 1 Virat Kohli, 2 Jacques Kallis, 3 Kevin Pietersen (capt), 4 Robin Uthappa (wk), 5 Roelof van der Merwe/Ross Taylor, 6 Mark Boucher, 7 B Akhil, 8 R Vinay Kumar, 9 Pankaj Singh, 10 Anil Kumble, 11 KP Appanna.

Kolkata: 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Brendon McCullum (capt & wk), 3 Brad Hodge, 4 Sourav Ganguly, 5 Laxmi Ratan Shukla, 6 Yashpal Singh, 7 Arindam Ghosh, 8 Ishant Sharma, 9 Ajantha Mendis, 10 Murali Kartik, 11 Ashok Dinda.

McCullum smashed 158 off 73 balls to annihilate Bangalore by 140 runs in the opening game of the IPL last season. Kolkata won their home game at the Eden Gardens as well by five runs after Bangalore were restricted to 126 for 4 in 16 overs.

George Binoy is a senior sub-editor at Cricinfo



Source: India news from Cricinfo

[keep-it-cool]

140 to win. I think KKR will take the points here.

[dhruvdeepak]

140 to win. I think KKR will take the points here.

bangalore will STORM home

[keep-it-cool]

140 to win. I think KKR will take the points here.

bangalore will STORM home

they dont have the batsmen

[keep-it-cool]

Van Wyk has done very well - this was an inspired choice by Buchanan ...maybe opens up some more options for them when Gayle departs.

[ramshorns]

KKR gets to perhaps the par score of 140 based on the lineup's for both the teams.  I think BRC despite RD not being there should chase these down and pip KKR to the post thus handing them over the wooden spoon for good.

Crucial for BRC would be to just see Ishant's initial 2 over spell off.  He is the one bowler who has the bite to get 2-3 wickets.  So the game plan here should be simple for BRC play out the 20 overs without any undue risks and the game is yours.

[keep-it-cool]

KKR gets to perhaps the par score of 140 based on the lineup's for both the teams.  I think BRC despite RD not being there should chase these down and pip KKR to the post thus handing them over the wooden spoon for good.

Crucial for BRC would be to just see Ishant's initial 2 over spell off.  He is the one bowler who has the bite to get 2-3 wickets.  So the game plan here should be simple for BRC play out the 20 overs without any undue risks and the game is yours.

Agree about Ishant ...he finally gets a batting line up that is not going to go after him from ball one. Cant rule Agarkar or Dinda out against this batting line up either. SG should also do well on this pitch.

But the danger man, for me, is Kartik ...spin will be difficult to get away here and BRC does not have a single good Indian batsman, who would be better equipped to tackle that.

[ramshorns]

KKR gets to perhaps the par score of 140 based on the lineup's for both the teams.  I think BRC despite RD not being there should chase these down and pip KKR to the post thus handing them over the wooden spoon for good.

Crucial for BRC would be to just see Ishant's initial 2 over spell off.  He is the one bowler who has the bite to get 2-3 wickets.  So the game plan here should be simple for BRC play out the 20 overs without any undue risks and the game is yours.

Agree about Ishant ...he finally gets a batting line up that is not going to go after him from ball one. Cant rule Agarkar or Dinda out against this batting line up either. SG should also do well on this pitch.

But the danger man, for me, is Kartik ...spin will be difficult to get away here and BRC does not have a single good Indian batsman, who would be better equipped to tackle that.

Yes no RD in the line-up hurts BRC for sure but still I think BRC will pull this one off.  I agree though KKR has a decent shot at this.

[keep-it-cool]

KKR gets to perhaps the par score of 140 based on the lineup's for both the teams.  I think BRC despite RD not being there should chase these down and pip KKR to the post thus handing them over the wooden spoon for good.

Crucial for BRC would be to just see Ishant's initial 2 over spell off.  He is the one bowler who has the bite to get 2-3 wickets.  So the game plan here should be simple for BRC play out the 20 overs without any undue risks and the game is yours.

Agree about Ishant ...he finally gets a batting line up that is not going to go after him from ball one. Cant rule Agarkar or Dinda out against this batting line up either. SG should also do well on this pitch.

But the danger man, for me, is Kartik ...spin will be difficult to get away here and BRC does not have a single good Indian batsman, who would be better equipped to tackle that.

Yes no RD in the line-up hurts BRC for sure but still I think BRC will pull this one off.  I agree though KKR has a decent shot at this.

After watching the teamsheet and the first few overs, my mental benchmarks were as follows:

Below 120: BRC favourites

120-140: Even

140 or above: KKR favourites

So I would lean towards KKR

[pzd]

Agarkar will be the trump card for bangalore 

[ramshorns]

Somehow...Ganguly doesn't look too focussed.
Looks quite demoralised.

Blwe:You never seize to amaze.

When Ganguly scores then all is well.   But then when he fails it is someone else's fault.  Make up your mind man!!!!

Just like Blwe, Agarkar is another that never siezes to amaze with the number of 4 balls he delivers on a consistent basis to his opponents.  And he does oblige in that over with couple of boundaries and couple of wides conceded.

[gouravk]

goswami is GOOOOOOODDDDD !!!1

[ramshorns]

This kid Goswami looks elegant.  He has a nice high back lift with a full face that is such a trademark for the lefthanded bats.  He has nice swing and touch to his lofted shots.  He look good to me and a worthy investment into the future.

[gouravk]

it is quite evident who is his role model 

[dhruvdeepak]

140 to win. I think KKR will take the points here.

bangalore will STORM home

they dont have the batsmen

toldja so

[dhruvdeepak]

cmon kallis you harami. i have picked you in fantasy team

[ganavk]

is BRC taking this too far unnecessarily. They can start taking some risks now and improve their run rate also.

[12th_Man]

cmon kallis you harami. i have picked you in fantasy team

Haha..
I have  given hopes of making up in fantasy after playing this Big Mac (read BM from KKR) trump few times. All I get back is Dunkin Doghnuts Omelet. That too they make it double.

[Blwe_torch]

Poor fielding by KKR....................how are they doing thois?!!
I have lost all hope on this team
Buchanan has screwed up the team altogether!

[dhruvdeepak]

yea i also had him but i threw him out for gilly.

i have mahesh rawat as my keeper in the other team and he has got me 140 pts in total. tht is nothing i know, but he cost me 55k and opened the way for me to make a few expensive picks

[dhruvdeepak]

Ganguly to Kohli, FOUR, what trash, a real half-tracker and thats pulled over midwicket firmly

commentary from cricinfo. anti-sg machinery at work

[Blwe_torch]

One 'inspired' pick in Van Wyck, doesn't give Buchy the license to destroy the whole team.
I don't see anything positive from Buchanan by the way the team KKR is playing.
whatever KKR is doing is despite Buchanan

[12th_Man]

Ganguly to Kohli, FOUR, what trash, a real half-tracker and thats pulled over midwicket firmly

commentary from cricinfo. anti-sg machinery at work

BRC trying their best to give some entertainment. Making a match out of it ..
107/4 now in 16