Eoin Morgan nearly made the difference in the end on a night when none of the other Kolkata batsmen applied themselves in testing conditions at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur. At 56 for six in 11 overs, chasing 145, the game looked dead and buried in Rajasthan's favour before the momentum swung back, courtesy of Morgan.Despite the bowlers thriving in favourable conditions, the architect of the victory was Brad Hodge, coming in at No. 5, who set things up for Rajasthan with an unbeaten 42. With very little momentum by his side, he quietly worked his way through with ones and twos before exploding in the last two overs. The cause was further helped by Dishant Yagnik's cameo of 16, which gave Rajasthan post 144 for 6 in 20 overs.His 38-ball 51 kept Kolkata afloat till the penultimate over, albeit by a slim margin. But every time he tried to counter-attack, came an untimely wicket to peg Kolkata further back and ultimately hand them a demoralizing loss.Shane Watson's much anticipated return was the talking point in the build-up to the game, but the hype lasted all of ten deliveries, when he was dismissed in the third over by Lee to peg back Rajasthan right at the outset.It came as no surprise when Gautam Gambhir, the Kolkata captain, asked Rajasthan to bat first. The move was vindicated in the very first over by Brett Lee, who got the ball to zip across the surface consistently. That was just a sign of things to come on a night that offered prodigious swing, catching the batsmen of both teams off guard.
No comments:
Post a Comment