Chennai beats Kolkata!

Chennai won the Twenty20 match against Kolkata by three runs in a tough battle as per the Duckworth-Lewis method after play was halted first by the failure of some lights in the floodlight towers and later by Nor’wester that lashed the stadium.

At the time of the stoppage, Chennai had made 55 for no loss in eight overs chasing a target of 149 for five in 20 overs. As per the D/L method, Chennai needed to score 52 in eight overs.

The Chennai openers Fleming and Patel Batted well and made the victory possible despite facing the aggressive bowling by Shoaib Akhtar and Ishant Sharma.

The two left-handers played so well that getting the runs was no tough job for them rather the runs kept coming in a steady way.
By the end of the fourth over the duo had amassed 30 runs and by the end of the power play it was 43 for no loss.

In the eighth over Parthiv was dropped by Ashok Dinda at backward square-leg while pulling Ajit Agarkar. Both the strikers were not out at individual scores of Patel –19 and Fleming- 32. This effort was successful in bringing the victory to the Chennai.

This was the seventh victory of Chennai that enhanced its chances of a semifinal spot. On the other hand the King Khan’s team lost its sixth match.

Earlier, Kolkata won the toss and decided to bat first. The home side sent in Salman Butt and Mohammad Hafeez as openers. This was a new combination but did not meet expectations of Captain Ganguly.

Hafeez was the first to leave taken by Gony off Makhaya Ntini for six. Ganguly came in next but did not last long. Soon he was out at 2 off Ntini.

Debabrata Das was the lone change in the Kolkata side. Das played well and added 27 runs and was out off Ntini.
When Ntini came in the 17th over, he got a hat trick - Das out at 27 with the first ball and David Hussey (0) off the second ball to complete a hat-trick. This was the third hat trick of this tournament after L. Balaji and Amit Mishra of Delhi. Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Wriddhiman Saha faced rest of the overs and to took the team’s total to 149 in 20 overs.

Ntini was the best among the Chennai bowlers with a haul of four for 21. Kolkata batsmen could not put in the best show and failed to make good partnerships so Chennai took the benefit and won the match easily.