The Kolkata Knight Riders maintained their winning habit and cruised to yet another win the Champions League T20 today in Hyderabad. They remained invincible in the group round and clinched their fourth successive win in the tournament.
Powered by record third wicket partnership between Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa, the Knight Riders defeated the Dolphins by 36 runs and topped the group with 16 points. Both Pandey and Uthappa scored half-centuries and remained unbeaten.
They stitched a 153-run partnership for the third wicket and played instrumental role in giving the Dolphins a massive 188-runs target. Pandey made 47-ball 76, while Uthappa continued his good run of form and scored 55-ball 85.
The Dolphins never looked like chasing the target and lost wickets on regular intervals as the Gautam Gambhir-led side registered its 13th successive win in the T20s. Spinners, again, played a crucial role for Kolkata in restricting the opposition.
West Indies spinner Sunil Narine finished with three wicket, Yusuf Pathan scalped two, while Piyush Chawla, Andre Russell and Kuldeep Yadav took one wicket each to restrict the South African team for a mere 151 in 20 overs.
Skipper Morne van Wyk (34) fought upfront but he couldn’t stitch a partnership as he lost partners on regular intervals. Khaya Zondo played well for his 25-ball 32, while Andile Phehlukwayo (37) played an 18-ball cameo at the end.
“We had opportunities to apply skills, got ourselves where we could have nailed down a couple of games, but could not,” van Wyk said. “Tonight was another opportunity. Some of us had never seen these bowlers, never played on these grounds.”
“Back home, you play against the same guys often, and have a good idea what you are doing,” he added. “We played against teams used to their conditions. Home advantage. Tough cricket, learned a lot, we will be taking back a lot to South Africa.”
Earlier, the Knight Riders, for the first time in the tournament, elected to bat, in order to know what it feels like defending a total. Their decision, however, did not fare well and they cheaply lost skipper Gautam Gambhir (12), when he was castled by Robbie Frylinck.
The Dolphins got another quick wicket when Craig Alexander rattled Jacques Kallis’ (6) stumps. This was the last time the Dolphins tasted success as Pandey and Uthappa tore them apart and made a highest third wicket partnership in the Champions League T20.
“The wicket was good, there was a little movement off it at the start,” Pandey said. “There was one partnership needed, I and Robin had a discussion, and eventually it came off well. We have played a lot of cricket together, we know each other’s gameplans.”
