‘Gul-dozer’ calls time on topsy-turvy journey
ABU DHABI: South African captain Quinton de Kock scored a brilliant unbeaten 78 on Friday as Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians inflicted a crushing defeat on England counterpart Eoin Morgan in his first game leading Kolkata Knight Riders.
Morgan, who took over after Dinesh Karthik quit just hours before the game, won the toss but nothing else.
He saw his batsmen and bowlers hammered by Mumbai, whose eightwicket win -- a fifth straight victory -- put them back level with Delhi Capitals at the top of the IPL standings.
De Kock hit three sixes and nine fours in a 44-ball demolition of the Kolkata bowlers, as Mumbai made 149-2 in just 16.5 overs to overtake their rivals’ 148-5 off 20 overs.
Ironically, wicketkeeper De Kock dropped Pat Cummins in the penultimate over of the Kolkata innings. Cummins and Morgan hit 35 runs off the final 12 balls to give a semblance of respectability to the score. Fast bowler Cummins hit his first T20 half century.
His 53 included two sixes and five fours. Morgan made 39, with two sixes and a four in the last six balls.
It only partially made up for a disastrous performance by Kolkata’s leading batsmen.
The Australia-england partnership came together with their team in dire trouble at 61-5.
Despite their runs, Morgan knows he faces a tough task putting life back into big-spending Kolkata.
Cummins is the most expensive foreigner in the league with a $2.8 million contract but has taken only two wickets in eight matches and conceded another 28 runs to Mumbai.
Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma (35) and De Kock tore into the target from the first ball, which Sharma hit for a four. The pair put on 94 for the first wicket.
Sharma said he was happy to take a “backseat” and let De Kock “bat free”.
“He likes to take it to the bowlers,” said the India opener.
“It gives us a lot of confidence,” said Sharma of the win. “Clinical with the ball, clinical with the bat, the overall performance that we expected was there.”
Sharma said that after a six-month pandemic lay-off the whole team was “very hungry and they want to prove a point.”
The IPL has been moved to the United Arab Emirates because of the coronavirus crisis.
Dehli Capitals get a chance to reclaim top spot alone when they take on Chennai Super Kings in one of two games on Saturday.
KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS Rahul T c Suryakumar b T Boult ................. 7 Shubman c K Pollard b Rahul C .............. 21 Nitish R c Q de Kock b N Coulter-nile ........ 5 Dinesh K b Rahul C ................................... 4 Eoin Morgan not out ............................... 39 A Russell c Q de Kock b J Bumrah ........... 12 P Cummins not out ................................. 53 Extras ( 0b 2lb 0nb 0pen 5w) .................. 7 Total (20 overs) ......................... 148-5 Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-33, 3-42, 4-42, 5-61 Bowling: Trent Boult 4-0-32-1, Nathan Coulter-nile 4-0-51-1, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-22-1, Krunal Pandya 4-0-23-0, Rahul Chahar 4-0-18-2 MUMBAI INDIANS Rohit S c Dinesh K b Shivam M ............... 35 Q de Kock not out ................................... 78 Suryakumar Y b Varun C ......................... 10 Hardik Pandya not out ............................ 21 Extras (0b 5lb 0nb 0pen 0w) ................... 5 Total (16.5 overs) ...................... 149-2 Fall of wickets: 1-94, 2-111 Bowling: Chris Green 2.5-0-24-0, Pat Cummins 3-0-28-0, Prasidh Krishna 2-0-30-0, Andre Russell 2-0-15-0, Varun Chakravarthy 4-0-23-1, Shivam Mavi 3-0-24-1
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan bowler Umar Gul, who earned the nickname ‘Gul-dozer’ for his rattling of stumps, has called time on his 17year cricket career.
With no crowds to bid farewell to the national hero because of coronavirus restrictions, the Twenty20 World Cup winner bowed out to a guard of honour from teammates and opponents after his final match — a disappointing defeat — in Rawalpindi on Friday.
“I want to be remembered as someone who tried his best for the country and it’s flattering that I was called ‘Gul-dozer’ during this memorable journey in cricket,” the 36-year-old said.
It was a topsy-turvy journey for Gul, whose affair with cricket began on the crowded streets of Peshawar.
He entered the international arena exactly a month after the legendary pace duo of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis retired following Pakistan’s disastrous 2003 World Cup.
It was like the baton of swing bowling had been passed from one generation to another, Gul recalled.
“It was tough to fill those shoes but I tried my best and it was great to lead Pakistan to the final of the Twenty20 World Cup in 2007 and then to the title two years later,” he said.
He finished with 163 Test and 179 ODI wickets, but he achieved his greatest success in Twenty20 cricket, the start of his career coinciding with the launch of the shortest format in 2003.
Gul was at his destructive best in England in 2009, finishing as the top wicket taker of the Twenty20 World Cup with 13. That included a mesmerising five wickets for just six runs in the semifinal win over New Zealand.
“Winning the World Cup was the highest point of my career,” he said. “I remember those were very tough days and there was unrest in our country so our win brought smiles back on the faces.”
At the time, Pakistan’s military was fighting an insurgency from militants in the northwestern region of the country. Bitter-sweet India memories Gul attributes his Twenty20 skills to the early days of his love for the game.
“I grew up playing 20-20-over matches in the streets and then Ramadan cricket where you look for wickets in a 20-over innings,” he said.
But his baptism was in Test cricket, where he became an instant hero in 2004.