Kolkata were on track for the first two balls of their innings, They had Gautam Gambhir back in the side after an comprehensive absence due to injury, they had won the toss and Manvinder Bisla had shattered Alfonso Thomas for consecutive fours to start the proceedings. After that, it was pretty much effortless for Kolkata for a large part of their innings. The next 13.1 overs brought only 68 runs for the loss of Bisla, Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary. Then Yusuf Pathan ignited the innings and gave the Knight Riders a total to defend, but in the final analysis, scoring at just over 5 runs an over for such a large part of the innings hurt Kolkata's chances and ended up costing them the match. That and the fact that Roelof van der Merwe trumped Pathan's show with a more sustained assault that overcome mid-innings jitters for Somerset and put them on course to victory. Somerset's bowlers kept a tight leash on the Kolkata batsmen for more than half the innings, with runs difficult to come by, and boundaries very rare. Bisla had started brightly, but he fell in the third over to Lewis Gregory. In the same over, the returning Gautam Gambhir fell first ball and Kolkata were immediately put on the backfoot. Jacques Kallis has played many Twenty20 knocks where he has taken the bowling by the scruff of the neck, but today was not one of those days. He stayed till the end alright, but until Pathan's entry, he was scoring at less than a run-a-ball and doing that for an extended time-period in Twenty20 cricket spells trouble. Manoj Tiwary too seemed unable to get the runs, with the result that Kolkata's run-rate quickly slipped. When Tiwary got out - off the first ball of the twelfth over - the score read a dismal 71/3.
Brett Lee bowled a superb 18th over, conceding only 5 runs, and Somerset were left with 14 to get off the final 2 overs. Balaji was then entrusted with the responsibility to bowl the 19th over, and for half of it, he did a good job. On the fourth ball though, the match turned once again. First Balaji bowled a wide down the leg side that allowed the batsmen to cross over too, to add 2 runs to the total. And then off the legal delivery, Nick Compton hit a ball bowled on the leg-stump to the boundary. In such a tight situation, a boundary alone would have turned the match, but with the two wides conceded, it was the equivalent of hitting a six off the third ball. That left Somerset with just 5 runs to get from 8 balls, and though Kolkata managed to drag the match into the final over, the last few deliveries were pressure free for the Somerset batsmen and they won by 5 wickets with 2 balls to spare.
That was when Kolkata began to fight back. Somerset had needed just 55 runs off 60 balls with 9 wickets in hand, but for a period the runs dried up. That led to a rush of wickets and suddenly the match was split wide open. It started with Trego being run-out, after Shakib al Hasan dropped him but recovered enough to effect a direct-hit run-out. That ended a second-wicket stand of 105 that had come off 12 overs. Four balls later, Shakib got the key wicket of van der Merwe, who had to depart for a whirlwind innings of 73 off 40 balls when he tamely chipped the ball back to the bowler. Hildreth and Suppiah too fell quickly and Somerset had slipped to 143/5 with just three overs to go. With 19 to win off 18 balls, and two batsmen who had together faced just 7 deliveries at the crease, it was anybody's game
Yusuf Pathan took a sighter of things while settling down, before exploding in a manner only he can. The unfortunate bowler to suffer was Arul Suppiah, who bowled the 15th over. Kallis took a single off the first ball, and Yusuf - who faced 5 balls till then - promptly hit the next four into the stands. A rattled Suppiah conceded five wides off what should have been the final ball, and the over ended up costing Somerset a massive 30 runs. In the space of one over, Yusuf had lifted Kolkata's run-rate from 5.9 to 7.5, and that put the IPL team on course for a good target. Yusuf's hitting seemed to unlock Kallis too, who hit a couple of big shots of his own. 83 runs had come off the first 14 overs for Kolkata, and 78 runs came off the next 6. Yusuf Pathan ended up on 39 not out off just 21 balls with Kolkata having a very healthy 161/3 on board. Kallis, who had been on 34 off 38, scored 40 from his next 23 balls to eventually end up on a respectable 74 not out off 61. Given the slowish nature of the track and the array of spinners Kolkata had, they were favourites to win going into the break.
That was when Kolkata began to fight back. Somerset had needed just 55 runs off 60 balls with 9 wickets in hand, but for a period the runs dried up. That led to a rush of wickets and suddenly the match was split wide open. It started with Trego being run-out, after Shakib al Hasan dropped him but recovered enough to effect a direct-hit run-out. That ended a second-wicket stand of 105 that had come off 12 overs. Four balls later, Shakib got the key wicket of van der Merwe, who had to depart for a whirlwind innings of 73 off 40 balls when he tamely chipped the ball back to the bowler. Hildreth and Suppiah too fell quickly and Somerset had slipped to 143/5 with just three overs to go. With 19 to win off 18 balls, and two batsmen who had together faced just 7 deliveries at the crease, it was anybody's game.
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