Kallis, Gambhir seal KKR win

Jacques Kallis and skipper Gautam Gambhir led the Kolkata Knight Riders to an emphatic Duckworth/Lewis victory against the Chevrolet Warriors in their Nokia Champions League match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Saturday.

Full Scoring

Warriors batsman Colin Ingram top-scored with 61 from 47 balls to help his team to a competitive, if not daunting total of 155 for four against KKR but the IPL team reached a formidable 83-1 from just nine overs before the rain, which had delayed the start by half an hour, returned to end the match.

The D/L par score was just 62 so there could be little doubt that the right team won. It was also a ‘must-win’ game for the Knight Riders who kept their semi-final hopes alive by winning and boosting their net run-rate.

KKR opener Manvinder Bisla smashed 19 from just 12 balls and Kallis was unbeaten on 31 from only 19 balls with Gambhir on 33 not out from 23 balls when the match was stopped.

Earlier, Warriors opener Jon-Jon Smuts contributed a slightly pedestrian 46 from 43 balls and Mark Boucher attempted to make up for lost ground with 38 from 27 balls but the Knight Riders showed great cunning and skill in the closing overs to deny the Eastern Cape Franchise the acceleration they needed to post a more significant target.

Kallis and Brett Lee were particularly impressive in the final stages of the innings and, with so many wickets in hand, the South African team were unable to produce the really big overs they needed on a good batting surface.

Not a single member of the KKR bowling attack conceded more than nine runs per over and Lee, especially, deserves credit for a fine analysis of 4-0-25-1 although Kallis was only marginally less successful with 4-0-33-1.

Teams:

Chevrolet Warriors: JT Smuts, AG Prince, CA Ingram, MV Boucher (wk), KR Smuts, J Botha (capt), CA Thyssen, N Boje, WD Parnell, J Theron, LL Tsotsobe

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