Knights triumph over the Aces
Hyderabad: A rousing start, a stutter in the middle, but all’s well that ends well. In short, this is the story of Kolkata Knight Riders’ thrilling two-run win over Auckland Aces in their Pool A qualifying match for the Champions League T20 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, here on Monday night.
After failing to capitalise on a rousing start and being reduced to 121 for six, the Knight Riders put in a disciplined effort on the field to restrict the Aces to 119 and pull off
an unlikely win. It was a good toss to win for Jacques Kallis and the Knight Riders wouldn’t have asked for a better start than the one they got.
Kallis and Manvinder Bisla put the Aces attack to the sword as they raced away to a blazing start. Bisla in particular was all fire as his willow whacked the cherry to all parts of the ground. Though he played a couple of unorthodox shots, the 26-year-old Bisla showed that he had an impeccable ability to time the ball.
After a quiet first over by Kyle Mills, Bisla tore into Chris Martin as he plundered three fours off the hapless medium-pacer. Kallis too joined the party and the Knight Riders raced away to 50 in 5.3 overs.
While the first 10 overs yielded 73 runs, the Knight Riders were able to get just 48 in the next 10 overs. They however made a commendable start to their defence when Martin Guptill was run out
off the first ball.
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