Bangalore beat Kolkata to boost play-off hopes at IPL

    Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter

Mohammed Siraj (3-8) bowled a fascinating spell to help Royals Challengers Bangalore (RCB) set up a landslide victory against a beleaguered Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in a lopsided Indian Premier League (IPL) match on Wednesday.

Riding on an extra ordinary bowling performance by Siraj, Bangalore restricted Kolkata to a paltry total of 84/8 and knock down the winning run for the loss of just two wickets with 6.3 overs to spare.

With the victory, Bangalore have moved to the second spot in the standings with 12 points, behind pace-setters Delhi, who have 14 points form nine games.

Chasing a small total, Bangalore got off to a flying start as both the openers added 46 runs for the first wicket before Lockie Ferguson got rid of Aaron Finch.  Two balls later, Devdutt Padikkal fell prey to a magnificent throw by Cummins as Bangalore were reduced to 46-2. Kohli and Gurkeerat Singh took their team over the line with an unbeaten 39-run partnership.

Earlier, Siraj wreaked a havoc with a fiery first spell, which saw a slew of records being broken. He triggered the collapse with dismissal of Rahul Tripathi, who was promoted to open the innings along with Shubman Gill.

Gill top-edged a good length delivery and AB de Villeires completed an easy catch as Kolakta lost their first wicket with just three runs on the board. Siraj rattled the stumps of Nitish Rana to send him back for a golden duck, completing maiden with double strike.

In the next over, Navdeep Saini got rid of Shubman Gill to push Kolkata on the back foot completely. They were reeling at 3-3 in three overs. Kolkata needed someone to steady the ship.

Siraj did not stop here. In his next over, he had Tom Banton caught by de Villiers to leave Kolkata in a quagmire. They had lost top four batsmen with just 14 runs on the board in four overs.

After that Kolkata could never recover and kept on losing the wickets at regular intervals. Captain Eoin Morgan was the highest scorer with 30.

Yuzvendar Chahal claimed tow wicket, while Saini and Washington Sundar picked up one wicket each as Kolkata could manage to muster only 84/8, which is the lowest total by a team that has not been bowled out in the IPL history.

This surpasses the 92 for eight by Kings XI Punjab against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Durban in 2009. Kolkata’s total is also the lowest in this year’s IPL. The previous lowest was 125/5 put up by CSK on Tuesday against Rajasthan.

Siraj also became the first bowler in the 13-year history of the IPL to bowl two maiden overs in an innings. The Hyderabadi right-armer’s first two overs were maidens, and took all his three wickets during those overs. His spell of 4-2-8-3 against Kolkata is also the most economical this year. No one has conceded runs at two an over this season.

He also bowled 16 dot balls, which are also the second most dot balls bowled in an innings in this edition of the tournament after CSK player Deepak Chahar’s 17. SunRisers Hyderabad’s Rashid Khan. His team-mate Saini too have bowled 16 dot balls in a spell.