Kochi Tuskers Kerala 132 for 7 (Jadeja 29, Jayawardene 25, Yusuf 3-20, Shakib 3-28) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 126 for 9 (M Tiwary 46, RP 2-25, Jadeja 2-25) by six runs
Kochi Tuskers Kerala won a battle of attrition against Kolkata Knight Riders on a slow Eden Gardens pitch that aided the spinners, defending a modest total by six runs, their third win on the trot and one that took them to third position on the points table. The wicket was expected to have played better than the low-and-slow one turned out for the game against Rajasthan Royals. It did not play as low, but was as slow, making it difficult for batsmen and a delight for the spinners.
After Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan had taken six wickets for 48 runs between them to restrict Kochi to 132, Kolkata's powerful batting line-up would have fancied the modest chase. But Kochi had three spinners themselves, in Muttiah Muralitharan, Ramesh Powar and Ravindra Jadeja. The trio did not take as many wickets as the Kolkata spinners had, but stifled the runs nevertheless as the pressure got to the Kolkata batsmen.
Ironically, in a game dominated by spin, what hurt Kolkata in the end was that they lost wickets to the fast bowlers at the start, and Kochi did not. The first three overs from the Kolkata fast bowlers had gone for 26 without any wicket, the first four from the Kochi seamers went for only 20, and produced two big wickets, that of Jacques Kallis and Gautam Gambhir.
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