Makwana Mehul
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Dashing West Indies opener Chris Gayle arrived on Wednesday to bolster the Kolkata Knight Riders campaign in the ongoing Indian Premier League.
Gayle who has already been advised two weeks of rest due to groin injury will resume full training only after a few days. For now, the big-hitting West Indian will carry out the recuperation process under Kolkata team physio Andrew Leipus.
"Chris has just arrived. We will need to do carry out some tests to get an update on the status of his injury. Definitely we will not want to rush things. He will play only when he is 100 per cent fit. In the meantime, John (Buchanan) and I will take stock of situation and take a call in a few days time," Leipus told TOI on Wednesday. "It's still not very clear that when exactly will we get to watch Gayle in action," a Knight Riders official said.
Gayle who was present during the Knight Riders' evening training session however tried his best to avoid the waiting media and remained in the confines of the dressing room. It required a lot of coaxing on the part of the photojournalists to convince Gayle to come out and pose for some quick snaps with skipper Sourav Ganguly.
The skipper didn't look to comfortable against the bowling machine during the net session. The southpaw was cleaned up by an express delivery. However he looked in good touch against spinners. He used his feet well against the likes of Murali Kartik, Sourashis Lahiri, David Hussey.
Kolkata: Chris Gayle has arrived. He smashed his way to his first IPL century, the second-fastest in this edition of the competition, and was the architect of Bangalore’s victory over his former team, Kolkata. Gayle formed powerful partnerships with Tillakaratne Dilshan and Virat Kohli as Bangalore were untroubled in their chase of 172, winning by nine wickets.
The pitch was proving to be tricky for the quicks and Kolkata opted to start with a spinner after having posted 171. Yusuf Pathan, who was battling a knee niggle, opened the bowling. After three good deliveries, Pathan strayed on the leg stump and Dilshan cashed in with four through square leg. With that, the flood gates were opened.
In the fourth over, Gayle had scored just three singles – while Dilshan had notched up 19 – when he was offered a full toss. He drove it down past the non-striker for the first of his 17 boundaries. It didn’t matter what Bangalore tried after that. Jaidev Unadkat was dispatched with disdain as Gayle went down on one knee, smacking him for six over long-on. Shakib Al Hasan was tossed around like a limp ragdoll, slogged over midwicket and mowed over deep square. Pathan was smoked through the covers. Gayle even showed a touch of deftness, playing one fine to the third man boundary.
It didn’t matter who was given the ball, even though spin proved difficult to get away during the Kolkata innings. Manoj Tiwary was slapped over long-on and even mishit for six. Medium pacer Rajat Bhatia was hit for 17 runs in his second over, 16 off Gayle’s bat. At the end of 12 overs, Bangalore were cruising on 123 for 1 when Dilshan was bowled by Lakshmipathy Balaji, who controlled the swing admirably.
The Gayle force blew on though. Together with Kohli, he brought the required run rate down to less than a run a ball. Kohli was given some room to express himself too, taking advantage of full balls offered by Balaji and showing off his wrist work against Bhatia. Kohli almost had too much fun and denied Gayle a century with a boundary off the first ball of the 18th over, that left Bangalore with just two to win. He blocked out the rest of the over to make amends.
Even a wide from Iqbal Abdulla couldn’t stop Gayle, who ended the innings with a smashing shot through the covers, winning the match with 11 balls to spare. Gayle, who was picked up by Bangalore as a replacement for the injured Dirk Nannes, wore a jersey with 333 – his highest Test score – on the back and made light work of a total that Kolkata should have been able to defend.
Their innings was held together by a classy 48 from captain Gautam Gambhir, patience from Jacques Kallis and a measured assault by Yusuf Pathan.
Things started disastrously for Bangalore with Zaheer Khan’s first over going for 19 runs. It consisted of three wides, one of which went for four, and three boundaries, all off the bat of Kallis. Sreenath Aravind fared a little better, his first over going for 14.
Daniel Vettori rung in the changes immediately, replacing Khan with left-arm spinner Syed Mohammed. Together with Dilshan, he hauled the run rate back to reasonable 8.33 per over. Mohammed was impressive in his initial two-over spell and was rewarded for tight bowling when Haddin tried to hit him over mid-off but got an edge that Kohli collected at point.
Kallis and Gambhir batted with patience against the slower bowlers and unleashed when Khan was brought back in the 11th over. Gayle played a role in the field as well, taking the catch that sent Kallis on his way. Vettori bowled a shorter one which Kallis drove on the up towards extra cover where Gayle dived to his left and plucked the ball out of the sky.
Yusuf Pathan, batting at four, allowed himself five balls to settle before depositing a Mohammed delivery over long-on. After Gambhir was caught by Dilshan at extra cover, Pathan unleashed. He destroyed Aravind, pulling the short one for four, smashing the full one for six and dispatching the low full toss to the boundary.
The quicks redeemed themselves a bit with Khan bowling a decent last over, mixing up slower balls and yorkers, and Aravind claiming the wicket of Pathan, who was trying to force the ball over long off but only got it as far as Kohli.
West Indies opener Chris Gayle arrived in Kolkata from the West Indies to join the Kolkata Knight Riders in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket.
Gayle, the first player to score a ton in the last T20 World Cup, also visited the Eden Gardens. He, however, refrained from any net practice.
Umar Gul and Salman Butt from Pakistan are also likely to join the team soon, sources in the Knight Riders camp said.
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Sourav Ganguly and other members of the team, except Ishant Sharma, practised for about two hours at the Eden Gardens under the watchful eyes of coach John Buchanan.
Sharma, the lanky medium pacer is in Delhi for personal reasons.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of the pitch and ground committee of Board of Control for Cricket in India Daljit Singh inspected the second wicket at the stadium which has been kept ready for the April 29 match.
Daljit, in the city at instance of the BCCI following the strident criticism of the pitch after the Sunday match, reportedly expressed satisfaction over the second pitch.
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