Kolkata beats Bangalore to keep playoff hopes alive

RANCHI: Kolkata kept their slim chances of making it to the Indian Premier League playoffs alive with a five-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore, who did their own ambitions no good, at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association stadium here yesterday.
The star of Kolkata’s win in the low-scoring match, with bat and ball, was Jacques Kallis.
On a pitch that no one was very certain about, Gautam Gambhir, the Kolkata captain, opted to field, and from there on, it was a long struggle for the Bangalore batsmen. The ball often stopped on the batsmen and the Power Play overs yielded just 16 runs for the loss of Cheteshwar Pujara’s wicket.
Virat Kohli hit a couple of boundaries, while Chris Gayle edged a four past slip and hit Ryan ten Doeschate for a straight six, but these were the exceptions to the rule. Gayle looked like he was biding his time, but the promised blitzkrieg never came. Kohli had played on to a Kallis delivery by then, and Gayle, with the total on 70 for 3, was stumped smartly by Manvinder Bisla off Sunil Narine. His 33 took 36 balls and partly explained why the scoring rate never crossed six an over.
Even AB de Villiers didn’t have it easy. He fell to Balaji, one delivery after hitting him over cover for six, nicking an attempted reverse-sweep to Bisla. His dismissal brought huge cheers from the crowd, with local boy Saurabh Tiwary walking in, but Narine made his stay a short one, trapping him plumb in front for just one. The Kolkata bowlers, led by Narine (4 for 22), Kallis (2 for 17) and Balaji (2 for 22), were exemplary in the way they exploited the conditions, restricting Bangalore to 115 for 9.
Despite the conditions not improving, it shouldn’t have been a difficult chase for Kolkata with Bangalore packing their side with medium pacers. But Bisla fell in the first over, a wicket maiden from Ravi Rampaul, and though Gambhir hit three consecutive boundaries in an Abhimanyu Mithun over, he too fell early, caught at slip off Vinay Kumar.
Yusuf Pathan’s 16-ball 18, before he was out lbw to Murali Kartik, was useful, but the Kolkata innings was built around Kallis. Before he got out at a tricky time, with 20 required in just over three overs, Kallis’s 45-ball 41 was just the sort of innings the side needed. He was followed by Manoj Tiwary, who played a Vinay full toss straight to Kohli at cover after a good contribution of 24 in 27 balls.
A twist in the tale looked on the cards but with the target so low, Kolkata scraped home with four balls to spare as ten Doeschate hit Vinay for a straight four. The win took Kolkata to 12 points while Bangalore remained on 16; both teams have two games left to play.