IPL Cricket first match: How McCullum hurricane dethrones Royal Challengers
Kolkata Knight Riders batting first made their way to 222 for three wickets thanks to McCullum’’s record-breaking 158 not out, and then bowled the Bangalore Royal Challengers out for just 82 runs to leave dada’s and SRK’s team winners by a crushing 140-run margin.
Knight Riders’ team owner Shah Rukh Khan and his entire gang that included his close friend Karan Johan, Juhi Chawla, Arjun Rampal and wife Gauri danced in delight as McCullum first broke loose with a flurry of shots and thereafter as each Bangalore wicket fell. Poster boy Ishant Sharma in fact gave Kolkata the ideal start when he bowled Dravid first ball, and from there on it was a downhill slide all the way for the home side.
Opening alongside Ganguly, McCullum ripped into the Bangalore Royal Challengers’ attack, hitiing a series of fours and sixes with total ease. Dravid was pushed immediately on to the back foot and never got a chance to recover. What he could have added was that none of the other Koklata batsmen needed to do much, given the rate at which McCullum scored. And Ganguly was delighted. McCullum himself was humble about his knock.
Only one batsman in the Bangalore Royal Challengers was – Praveen Kumar – managed to cross into double figures and in the end, the win was just a formality to be completed. It brought the Knight Riders full points a record individual score by McCullum (158 not out) and also included a T20 record 13 sixes.
Ajit Agarkar finished with 3 for 25, Ashok Dinda and Ganguly with two wickets and Ishant had one wicket in his three overs for just seven runs.Earlier, McCullum smashed Zaheer Khan, Cameron White and Ashley Noffke as he plundered runs at will. And it was clean hitting, good cricket shots executed with great power and freedom.
Praveen Kumar started good initially but then was hit for 16 runs in the last over of the innings as the Knight Riders added 68 runs in the last five overs.McCullum got his 50 in 32 balls (5×4, 3×6), 100 in 53 balls (8×4, 7×6) and 150 in 70 balls (10×4, 13×6). En route he also bettered Cameron White’s highest-ever T20 score of 141 not out in a county game two seasons ago.
Thanks to the Kiwi wicketkeeper, every partnership for Kolkata put on better than 50 runs. McCullum added 61 for the opening wicket with Ganguly contributing 10. For the second, he piled on 51 and Ricky Ponting contributed 20. McCullum then allowed David Hussey the luxury of a 12-ball 12 as the two took the score to 172 before he and Mohammad Hafeez took the score to 222 for three by the 20th over to virtually end any hopes for Bangalore.
Source:http://www.mynews.in
