Kolkata Knight Riders took another step towards the exit in the Champions League T20 after they were beaten by South Australian Redbacks by 19 runs at Hyderabad. With this, they now have played two and lost both as compared to South Australia’s one win from two games, Warriors’ two wins in two, Somerset’s one victory in one and Bangalore’s one loss in one match. Only two of the five sides qualify for the knockouts from each of the groups.
Champions League T20 2011: South Australia Relegate Kolkata To Successive Defeats
Callum Ferguson’s unbeaten 70 ensured that the South Australian Redbacks had pushed Kolkata Knight Riders to their second successive defeat in the CLT20 2011.
The Hyderabad pitch has been a cause for a lot of concern for the batsmen thanks to the difficulty in scoring but South Australia seemed to have had no such issues. Callum Ferguson’s 70 from only 40 balls, coming in at number three, ensured that the momentum was never lost and the Redbacks went on to get to 188 in their 20 overs.
They had earlier been provided a decent start by Michael Klinger and Daniel Harris but once both of them departed within four runs of each other, and Cameron Borgas followed them soon after, they were in a danger of being restricted. Instead, Daniel Christian’s 27-ball 42 helped add 84 for the fourth wicket with Ferguson that meant that 94 runs had come from the last six overs for the Redbacks.
In reply, Kolkata Knight Riders were propped by the three boundaries that Manvinder Bisla hit off the very first ball but that was all that came by the way of big overs for a long time. Bisla departed soon after, as did Shakib al Hasan who had received a promotion in the order.
Gautam Gambhir’s poor form continued as he was caught for nine in an attempt to hit over the extra-cover after surviving a close stumping appeal and by the time Jacques Kallis and Yusuf Pathan had departed, the asking rate had catapulted up to more than 14 per over. South Australia squeezed the Knight Riders into submission with the boundaries difficult to come by.
There were a few lusty hits for the Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate, but he had come far too down the order to have an impact on the result of the game.
Kolkata will now need to win both their games, against Bangalore and the Warriors, to have an outside chance of getting to the next round of the competition.
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