Siraj bags 3-8 as Bangalore beats Kolkata in IPL
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Oct 22, (AP): Fast bowler Mohammed Siraj rolled over Kolkata Knight Riders’ top order with superb figures of 3-8 as Royal Challengers Bangalore recorded a resounding eight-wicket victory in the Indian Premier League.
Siraj’s impressive swing bowling saw Kolkata’s 20-over innings meakly folding at 84-8. Only captain Eoin Morgan showed some resistance with a top-score of 30.
Kolkata’s batting performance was only slightly better than their lowestever IPL score of 67 when they were bowled out by Mumbai Indians in 15.2 overs in 2008. Bangalore eased to 85-2 with more than six overs to spare despite losing both openers – Aaron Finch (25) and Devdutt Padikkal (16) – in the seventh over.
“It was a good toss to lose because we would have batted first,” Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli said. “Last year Siraj had a tough year and a lot of people went hard at him. This year he has worked hard and was bowling well in the nets. He has seen the results now, but we want him to keep following the process.”
Delhi Capitals and Bangalore occupy the top two slots with 14 points each after winning seven of their 10 games. Kolkata are fourth with 10 points after losing their fifth game on Wednesday.
Gurkeerat Singh and Kohli (18) remained unbeaten on 21 and 18 runs respectively as Lockie Ferguson (117) delayed the outcome of the game by bowling his full quota of four overs and having Finch caught behind.
“I think it started with batting. Being four or five down as early as we were is disappointing,” Morgan said, adding that he should have bowled first instead of opting to bat after winning the toss.
“We have been consistent with our selections of the top three (batsmen), we believe they are the ones to take us forward. They have shown potential, so it was important to back the Indian batsmen.”
Siraj became the first bowler in IPL history to bowl two maiden overs in a single game and at one stage his figures read 2-2-0-3 before he conceded eight runs in his next two overs.
Kolkata’s frontline batsmen had no answer for Siraj’s swing with the new ball as Rahul Tripathi was caught behind off the right-arm fast bowler’s third delivery and Nitish Rana followed off the next ball when his stumps were rattled off a full swinging delivery.
Another seamer, Navdeep Saini, made it 3-3 when Shubman Gill played a rash pull shot and was caught at deep mid-wicket before Siraj made it 4-14 in only the fourth over of Kolkata’s innings by having Tom Banton caught behind.
The two spinners – Yuzvendra Chahal (2-15) and Washington Sundar (114) – continued to strangle Kolkata’s middle-order, which included the experienced Morgan and Dinesh Karthik struggling to rotate the strike.
Chahal successfully won a leg before wicket referral against Karthik and Morgan holed out in the deep while attempting an ambitious shot against Sundar in the 16th over.
Ferguson (19 off 16 balls) was the only batsman to score better than run-a-ball in the end before Kolkata notched this season’s lowest total.