Akhtar Shines!

The roaring bowling and a splash of wickets! What a match it was! True entertainment and fully laden with heat and passion! This was the full of entertainment match between Kolkata and Delhi. Brushing aside controversies, Shoaib Akhtar made a sensational Debut in the league tournament. Shoaib Akhtar bowled so well that Kolkata got a 23-run victory.

Rawalpindi Express Blew off the visitors batting order. This was a tremendous effort in his much awaited live action. The infamous bad boy of international cricket brought the missing charm to the king’s depleted team. The journey from five years ban to this wickets plundering was not less than a rollercoaster ride.

Akhtar’s favourite ground proved lucky for him. It was here only that he made his debut in 1999 during the Asian Test championship. In his debut here he had got Sachin Tendulkar out on his first ball in 1999.

Last evening he picked up four wickets in his first three overs. Delhi was gone at 110 in 17.5 overs, in reply to the Kolkata’s modest total of 133 for 6 at the Eden Gardens.

He claimed wickets in all his first three overs. With these early wickets he completely shook the batting order of Delhi. On the second ball of his first over he got crucial wicket of Virender Sehwag who went back on duck.

Second success was Gautam Gambhir who managed to make only 10. Soon Villiers was to go back to the pavilion on Akhtar’s ball at mere 7. Manoj Tiwary also could not bear this pressure and was lbw on very next ball by Akhtar at 9. He was on a hat trick but Dilshan denied Akhtar a hat-trick. As expected, the speedster was declared ‘Man of the Match’.

Later, Laxmi Ratan Shukla took the call and bowled the 18th over. He finished off the Delhi innings by taking the last three wickets.
Soon there was a small batting partnership emerging on the pitch between Dilshan and Amit Mishra.

The duo added 24 for the sixth wicket. Just when it looked like Delhi has made a come back in the match, then there was a dramatic run out of Dilshan at 25 runs.

Mishra was out at 31 by Shukla. Then was the turn of Yomahesh and Sangwan who were out at 3 and 0 respectively. McGrath was not out at duck.

On the batting side Kolkata could not perform very well that’s why the small target was set in front of the rivals. Salman Butt batted well and was out at 48 on ball by Yomahesh.

Chopra could add only 13 before he was out at the ball by Sangwan. Ganguly added just 7 and was out at ball by Yomahesh. Hussey added 31 to the score board and was out at ball by Maharoof. Shukla added 10, Saha added 5 runs and Abdullah was not out at 1. So the target of 133 was set in 20 overs.

Though the target was not formidable but the bowling side performed well to successfully defend the target. So Akhtar had to shine and he led Kolkata to a convincing win over mighty Delhi!