A strangling performance by Kolkata Knight Riders in the field kept Chennai Super Kings to under 120 on a difficult pitch at Eden Gardens. S Badrinath's carefully crafted half-century held the Chennai innings together.
The match was delayed by drizzle for 60 minutes but both captains thought the weather would have little impact on the pitch. They identified it as a strip that would be good for batting but were proved wrong when Chennai's openers arrived at the crease.
It was a slow, low wicket that didn't allow the ball to come on to the bat and Brett Lee and Iqbal Abdulla exploited that perfectly. Both bowled tight lines, with Lee using the slower ball well, and didn't give the batsmen room to break away. Pressure built and M Vijay succumbed. Abdulla saw him charging down the track, dropped one short and was offered an easy caught and bowled.
Lee bowled a three-over spell up front, instead of usual two, and while he pulled the noose at one end, another wicket fell at the other. Yusuf Pathan, who didn't allow any release, took the pace off the ball and had Suresh Raina caught at midwicket. Rahul Bhatia also permitted no let-up and after nine overs, Chennai had not scored a single boundary.
The first one came in the 10th over, off Pathan, when Badrinath had had enough. He smacked it low and flat over long-on. Michael Hussey had stayed with Badrinath through the tough patch but his labour ended in the next over when he was offered a short ball by L Balaji and smacked it straight to Eoin Morgan at midwicket.
Albie Morkel was promoted to number five and gave himself some time to get in and the Kolkata bowlers maintained the stranglehold. After eight balls, he had the opportunity to sink his teeth into Jaidev Unadkat, who was only brought on in the 15th over. The pace bowler seemed to misread the pitch and bowled too quick and was dispatched for back to back fours before he pulled it back with some slower balls. Morkel was dropped in the same over, by Lee, trying to launch Unadkat over the leg-side.
While Morkel was attempting to hit big shots and even appeared to get an edge in Lee's final over but was not given out, Badrinath was sculpting his half-century. He became more comfortable after he had got in and picked the balls to hit well. Morkel had more of the strike in the last two overs and all but one of his swings failed to get to the boundary.
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