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Loading ...Rajasthan Royals win first ever IPL super over
Cape Town, Apr 22 (UNI) Yousuf Pathan cloberred Ajentha Mendis for 18 runs in four balls as Rajasthan Royals beat Kolkata Knight Riders in the first-ever IPL super over at Newlands here tonight.
Chasing a victory target of 151, Kolkata Knight Riders were inching close to victory through Sourav Ganguly (46 runs off 30 balls) but the left-hander was out on the fifth ball of the final over and Ishant Sharma took a single to level the scores after the alloted 20 overs.
The teams then nominated three batsmen and a bowler for their super-overs. Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum came in to bat for Knight Riders and took 15 runs off Kamran Khans one over for the loss of one wicket.
However, Yousuf Pathan made it look easy as he struck two sixes, a couple and a boundary to win the match for his team with all the three wickets intact.
In their run chase earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders began on a cautious note as Chris Gayle mixed aggression with some uncharacteristic defensive approach and was fairly successful in doing that.
The Knight Riders were doing well until Brendon McCullum decided to go for a big one but failed to clear the mid-off fielder and was out caught off Dimitri Mascarenhas for three runs.
However, though limping with his left leg, did not give much chances to the rival team. The tall left-hander was ready to defend a good number of balls but did not leave any opportunity to git some lusty blows.
With his individual score on 41 off 32 balls, Gayle went for a big one off Shane Warne but the legendary leg-spinner deceived the opener with the flight and gave his team a crucial break-through.
Laxmi Ratan Shukla (13), who was sent up the order, was given a life but the batsman could not make much use of it and continued to live dangerously. Finally his innings came to a halt when he was sent back to the pavilion by left-arm pacer Kamran Khan.
Soon the asking rate picked up the pace and Brad Hodge (5) and Sanjay Bangar (2) failed to contribute much to their teams cause while Sourav Ganguly was left with a mountain to climb.
But the former Indian captain kept his cool and reminded the his class for which he was known. Ganguly made the most of his experience and unleashed a couple of sixes to take 22 runs off Munaf Patel in the 16th over of the innings.
Warne, who was left with two overs of his, brought himself in and Ganguly pulled in all his experience to bring the equations within the reach.
At the other end, Yashpal Singh (20) gave him good company and hit some occasional boundaries to take the pressure off Ganguly.
After being sent in to bat first, Rajasthan Royals were off to poor start losing opener Paul Valthaty (5) and Rob Quiney (6) with just 14 runs on the board.
Next man in Yousuf Pathan played his characteristic innings and combined well with Graeme Smith to do the repair work.
Pathan did not get bog down despite some quick fall of wickets and struck 42 runs off just 21 balls with the help six fours and a couple of sixes.
Both the batsmen added 56 runs for the third wicket stand before Smith was held at slip off Ajentha Mendis second over.
Soon after Pathan tried to heave Mendis into the stands but got a top edge and was Yashpal Singh completed the catch to send the dasher back into the pavilion.
Ravinder Jadeja (22), Dimitri Mascarenhas (27) and Abhishek Raut (21) played useful hands to take the defending champions to 150 for the loss of six wickets.
For the Knight Riders, pacer Anureet Singh bowled well until the last over of the innings when he was taken for 18 runs.
The speedster along with with Ishant Sharma returned with a couple of wickets each while Mendis, who was playing his first match of the IPL, grabbed two wickets for just 19 runs off his four overs.
