A surprise on the first day itself

Well hardly anyone would have expected the team that finished last in the previous years' edition of the Indian Premier League to beat the team that won the championship the same year. Things started the same way as expected for the Kolkata Knight Riders when they lost 2 wickets even before the scoreboard had something to read. It was fascinating to see the first two wickets falling when the score was zero and the next two wickets falling when the score was 31. And, what happened following that is well aware from the scoreboard itself which is needless to be said I suppose.

The Kolkata Knight Riders did exceptionally well to see their team go past 150 runs when at one stage even a 100 on the board would have made the players of the Kolkata Knight Riders feel satisfied for the fact that atleast they can bowl 10 overs to the Deccan Chargers who had the likes of Gilchrist and Symonds in their ranks. The run rate when the fourth wicket fell was just above 6 an over which eventually happened to be over 8.0 an over. All thanks to the two men out there namely- Owais Shah and Angelo Mathews who put up an unbeaten 131 run partnership.

Angelo Mathews was found to be a failure in the bilateral series between Sri Lanka and India which was played a couple of months back. But, this time he was the man who ensured a turnaround to his team which not only won the game but also Mathews was awarded the man of the match. It is nonetheless another case of underestimating the opposition from the Deccan Chargers who had anticipated a win against the Kolkata Knight Riders even before the match had begun. And, finally they had to pay the price for the same. A close look at the KKR squad doesn't reveal any strong batting names.

The only batsmen who can be thought of to have a huge fan following them were Sourav Ganguly and Brad Hodge, both of whom departed at early stages of their innings. Following them were Pujara who did what was expected off him when he went back runless. On the other hand, the Deccan Chargers had the likes of Gilchrist, Rohith Sharma, Symonds and Gibbs, all of whom were thought to be big hitters. Likewise, only Gilchrist & Symonds would have been enough for any opposition which didn't happen in the 1st match. So was the case with the KKR's bowling which had no decent names if not for Ishanth and Langeveldt and that too compared to the other bowlers of KKR.

And, the Deccan Chargers had Symonds, Vass and Ojha who have played international matches before but could not bail their team out yesterday. THis is the magic of T20 cricket and more so in the IPL.