Another night of the Knights

In Match-4 of the DLF Indian Premier League, V.V.S Laxman, captain of the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers, won the toss and elected to bat. On the Eden track, the team set a rather low total by the standards of T20, a mere 110 in18.4 overs. However, the experts of the game were almost unanimous that this was going to be an uphill task for the Kolkata Knight Riders and that the formidable score of 110 was indeed a competitive total on this track. When the Kolkata Knight Riders took the field to chase the total, a lot depended on the last match's hero, McCullum, but he departed quickly followed by Ponting and Wriddhiman Saha. The stands of spectators went quiet and the opponents were tightening the noose. Sourav did try to stay there but he too was dismissed for 14 after being hit twice by the ball, once on the chest and later on his fingers. Hafeez brought some relief with his big hits (a six and a four) when even singles seemed like a welcome thing. Nevertheless, it was the efforts of David Hussey (38 runs in 43 balls, which included one 4 and three 6s) that finally saw the hosts home. All this happened not before a slight drama when the lights went out with 3.2 overs to go (the Kolkata Knight Riders needed 22 runs from 20 balls at this stage). Had the lights not come back, application of the Duckworth Lewis method would mean a tie that would have been followed then by a bowlout. Thankfully, nothing like that happened and the home team won, not before giving us, the supporters, a few big scares, though.

I sat glued to the television throughout this game as I'm going to miss the next few ones, as they would be played on weekdays. Hope that the Knights would continue with their winning streak until the next holiday (18th May) when I can again make good use of the time watching them bat.