Kochi stay mathematically alive with a thumping win over RR !

Kochi Tuskers Kerala 98 for 2 (Hodge 33*) beat Rajasthan Royals 97 (Menaria 31, Hodge 4-13, Sreesanth 2-16) by eight wicket. (Current points table at the end of the article)

The short boundaries in Indore proved to be bad masters for Rajasthan Royals. The small playing field seemed to be playing on their minds as batsman after batsman in the middle order perished to reckless strokes. Brad Hodge was at the receiving end of those gifts, ending up with a career-best 4 for 13, but it was perhaps a tight first spell from Sreesanth - three overs for 15 runs and the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane - that set the desperation in. Kochi chased the paltry 98 in style, giving their net run-rate a boost too.

(Photo ; Shane Warne Bowled by Hodge) Coming into the game, both the teams had an outside chance of making it to the play-offs, but Rajasthan didn't seem too optimistic on that front. They knew the remoteness of the outside chance, and took the opportunity to make six changes to their side. Rajasthan now stand knocked out, and Kochi, with 12 points from 13 games, need to win their last game and need Kolkata and Punjab to lose theirs.

None of Rajasthan's experiments worked. RP Singh and Sreesanth offered no freebies. Faiz Fazal was caught plumb in front by a full toss before Sreesanth got Dravid with a nice outswinger. Rahane followed up a flick from wide outside off to mid-on with a shuffle too far across, making it 26 for 3 in 5.2 overs.

Rajasthan didn't look to rebuild; they knew they would need a substantial total here. Ashok Menaria began with a six off Sreesanth, Shane Watson with three off debutant left-arm spinner P Prashanth. At 56 for 3 after eight, it seemed like Rajasthan were on their way back, but Watson played all around a full delivery from Prasanth Parameswaran.

Now began the Hodge show. He kept tossing the ball up, the Rajasthan batsmen kept trying to hit the ball into the jungles of Madhya Pradesh. All of Hodge's four victims thought they could hit him for sixes; they could not have been more wrong. Pinal Shah managed to go as far as long-on, Jacob Oram failed to even get a touch, Shane Warne dragged one slog-sweep on, and Menaria found long-off. When Menaria fell, Rajasthan had slumped to 89 for 9 in the 16th over, and they were not going to get many more.



Brendon McCullum came out obsessed with improving his team's net run-rate, charging at Shaun Tait first ball. Tait didn't do himself any favours, bowling two no-balls in the first over. One of them - when he cut the side crease - had bowled McCullum. After hitting Tait for a four and six in the first over, McCullum proceeded to treat Oram as a club bowler, nonchalantly flicking him for three straight sixes. When MCullum fell for a 12-ball 29, it was important for Kochi to keep scoring fast. Hodge and Parthiv Patel didn't disappoint, ending the chase in 7.2 overs. It was the second-biggest win in terms of balls remaining in IPLs and the fourth-biggest in all Twenty20 matches.

Current IPL Points Table (as at 16th may 2011)

Royal Challengers Bangalore	12	8	3	0	1	17	+0.849	1712/199.0	1640/211.3
Chennai Super Kings	12	8	4	0	0	16	+0.544	1838/225.1	1708/224.1
Mumbai Indians	12	8	4	0	0	16	+0.245	1687/235.2	1642/237.1
Kolkata Knight Riders	12	7	5	0	0	14	+0.403	1594/212.4	1565/220.4
Kings XI Punjab	12	6	6	0	0	12	-0.183	1876/235.4	1854/227.4
Kochi Tuskers Kerala	13	6	7	0	0	12	-0.186	1760/236.2	1837/240.4
Rajasthan Royals	13	5	7	0	1	11	-0.969	1553/229.1	1668/215.2
Pune Warriors	11	4	7	0	0	8	-0.003	1521/207.3	1601/218.2
Deccan Chargers	12	4	8	0	0	8	-0.117	1804/240.0	1785/233.5
Delhi Daredevils	13	4	9	0	0	8	-0.448	2031/258.2	2076/249.5

Karthik blitz keeps Punjab in race

Kings XI Punjab 181 for 4 (Dinesh Karthik 69, S Marsh 42, RP Singh 4-25) beat Kochi Tuskers Kerala 178 for 7 (Jayawardene 76, Bipul Sharma 2-32) by six wickets

Kings XI Punjab beat the Kochi Tuskers Kerala by six wickets in a boundary-rich encounter at the IPL's newest venue, Indore, keeping their hopes of making the play-offs alive. Emphatic batting from Dinesh Karthik and Shaun Marsh, who put on a 111-run stand for the third-wicket, made the difference on a surface that was good for batting, in a stadium with short boundaries and a quick outfield.

Karthik and Marsh's bruising combination nullified the earlier efforts of Mahela Jayawardene. The Kochi captain had played a classy innings of 76 in which he alternated effortlessly between elegant flicks, casual lofted strokes and crunching blows to propel the Kochi ship to 178.

Adam Gilchrist and Paul Valthathy started the chase in measured fashion against RP Singh and Sreesanth but with the target they had to chase, they could not afford to hang around for too long. Valthaty began the assault, smashing RP for two sixes off short balls before being bowled with the full one.

Gilchrist continued watchfully and was out in RP's next over, trying to pull over midwicket but only succeeding in getting an edge through to Parthiv Patel, leaving Punjab in trouble.

Karthik and Marsh weren't pushed into a shell by that though. They took on the bowling and managed at least one boundary off every over they faced together. Some overs were more profitable than others. Marsh was feeding off the full delivery, getting under them and driving aerially, while Karthik cashed in on the short balls. He hit the balls particularly furiously and brought up his 50 with a blistering swipe through midwicket.

As he and Marsh had Punjab needing about a run-a-ball for victory, when RP returned and struck twice again. Karthik drove in the air to extra cover and Mahela Jayawardene timed his leap to perfection, snatching it out of the sky. He stuck again in that over, removing Marsh with a spectacular reflex catch off his own bowling.

It slowed Punjab down a touch, but not enough as David Hussey and Mandeep Singh took them across the finish line. In the end Punjab got away with the 19 wides they sent down while bowling and the blistering start they allowed Jayawardene and Brendon McCullum to get off to.

The Kochi pair were offered a healthy amount of short ball and flighted deliveries from Ryan Harris and Bipul Sharma and took full advantage. The nature of the track allowed them to punish even decent balls and they put on 93 for the first wicket. McCullum fell to Sharma after being trapped lbw while attempting the sweep shot but Jayawardene was unmoved by the loss of his partner.

With Ravindra Jadeja, he took Kochi to 103 for 1 at the halfway stage. Jadeja smacked one gorgeous six off Piyush Chawla before the lespinner had him out lbw. The runs slowed a little after that. The third fifty took 44 balls to come, during which Jadeja and Brad Hodge were out, and Jayawardene had to rein himself in a little.

He formed another damaging partnership with Owais Shah, who had his first outing in the IPL this season. Shah hit an entertaining 23 off 11 balls before being run-out after struggling to hear the call from Jayawardene, who was himself run out off the last ball. A flurry of wickets at the end pegged Kochi back and kept them from striding over the 200 mark.



Current IPL Points Table (as at 11th May 2011)

Teams	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Chennai Super Kings	12	8	4	0	0	16	+0.544	1838/225.1	1708/224.1
Mumbai Indians	11	8	3	0	0	16	+0.314	1562/215.2	1507/217.1
Royal Challengers Bangalore	11	7	3	0	1	15	+0.863	1607/186.3	1539/198.3
Kolkata Knight Riders	11	7	4	0	0	14	+0.464	1493/199.4	1460/208.1
Rajasthan Royals	12	5	6	0	1	11	-0.587	1456/209.1	1570/208.0
Kings XI Punjab	11	5	6	0	0	10	-0.338	1706/215.4	1713/207.4
Kochi Tuskers Kerala	12	5	7	0	0	10	-0.628	1662/229.0	1740/220.4
Pune Warriors	11	4	7	0	0	8	-0.003	1521/207.3	1601/218.2
Delhi Daredevils	12	4	8	0	0	8	-0.363	1890/238.2	1906/229.5
Deccan Chargers	11	3	8	0	0	6	-0.177	1669/220.0	1660/213.5

Gomez, Hodge and Mahela makes Kochi Tuskers Victorious

Kochi Tuskers Kerala 156 for 5 (Jayawardene 55, Unadkat 2-25) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 139 for 7 (Morgan 66, Gomez 2-14 by 17 runs. (Full Scorecard at the end of the article)

A disciplined performance in the field and an explosive 35 off 19 balls from Brad Hodge helped Kochi Tuskers overcome Kolkata Knight Riders in the last match at the Nehru Stadium this IPL season.Hodge's last over blitz, in which he took 21 runs off countryman Brett Lee, proved to be the difference between the two sides, as Kochi defended 156 by 17 runs. In the chase, RP Singh and Sreesanth failed to get the same kind of movement that Brett Lee extracted early in the Kochi innings. Jacques Kallis and Eoin Morgan didn't have to take many risks early on as there were many poor deliveries that were smacked to the boundary. In the first three overs, the bulk of the short and wide ones came from RP Singh.

R Vinay Kumar and Prasanth Parameswaran pulled back the chase before it raged out of control with a selection of back of a length deliveries that proved difficult to get away. Although they kept the boundaries down, they didn't trouble the batsmen much and failed to get a breakthrough until after the halfway stage, when Kolkata were well set. Kallis was the senior partner and easily outscored Morgan in that phase. Seven times in the first ten overs Kallis stole the strike at the end of the over.

Just as Kallis looked as though he had grown roots, Raiphi Gomez rattled Kolkata with a double strike in his second over. He bowled Kallis with a legcutter and had Gautam Gambhir caught in the covers off consecutive balls, which left Morgan to assume the senior role. Manoj Tiwary could not last long, and Yusuf Pathan was expected to counterattack, but he and Morgan were frustrated by Gomez's variations and Parameswaran's accurate fuller deliveries. Sreesanth let the noose loosen, giving Morgan back-to-back boundaries but Vinay Kumar was on hand to tighten it. Confusions between Morgan and Yusuf mounted in Vinay's last over, and Morgan was run out when both batsmen ended up at the wicketkeeper's end.



It brought Brett Lee to the crease, in poetic justice for the last over he bowled, which went for 21. There were 25 to get off the last over of Kolkata's innings. Lee was run-out and the task proved too steep.

Kochi's innings was anchored by a third-wicket partnership between Mahela Jayawardene and Michael Klinger before being given momentum at the death by Hodge. It didn't look as though Kochi would get over the 150-run mark, especially after the way things started. Lee's first over was a whole bag of peaches. He got impressive away movement and started the innings with a maiden.



Some success seemed inevitable after the start Kolkata got and it came from Jaidev Unadkat, although he hardly deserved it. He banged one in, too short and too wide outside off that Brendon McCullum chased and his fine edge nestled in Kallis' hands at slip.

Parthiv Patel came in at No. 3 and opened his account with two stunning boundaries. He looked energetic and confident in his strokeplay and dealt with Unadkat's bouncer and the introduction of spin, in the form of Iqbal Abdulla, with relative ease. Surprisingly, it was the short ball that undid him, when he charged down the track and miscued a pull shot to midwicket.

The stage was set for Jayawardene to play an innings of authority and, with Klinger at the other end, he did exactly that. They played creative cricket, managing a boundary off five of the seven overs they were together for and pushed each other to take singles before Klinger holed out. When Abdulla got the wicket of Ravindra Jadeja for eight, Kochi were being pegged back and some impetus was needed.

The floodgates were opened with Jayawardene's six over long leg at the start of the 17th over and Kochi put on 54 runs in the final four overs, with Hodge's fireworks yielding almost half of those.

Kochi Tuskers Kerala won by 17 runs

• Twenty20 match | 2011 season
• Played at Nehru Stadium, Kochi
• 5 May 2011 - day/night (20-over match)

	Kochi Tuskers Kerala innings (20 overs maximum)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
	BB McCullum	c Kallis b Unadkat	1	8	0	0	12.50
	M Klinger	c Iqbal Abdulla b Pathan	29	26	3	0	111.53
	PA Patel†	c Bhatia b Unadkat	21	16	4	0	131.25
	DPMD Jayawardene*	run out (Ladda/Kallis)	55	41	2	2	134.14
	RA Jadeja	c Pathan b Bhatia	8	11	1	0	72.72
	BJ Hodge	not out	35	19	3	2	184.21
	RV Gomez	not out	1	1	0	0	100.00
	Extras	(lb 1, w 3, nb 2)	6
	Total	(5 wickets; 20 overs)	156	(7.80 runs per over)

Did not bat R Vinay Kumar, RP Singh, S Sreesanth, P Parameswaran

Fall of wickets1-6 (McCullum, 1.4 ov), 2-30 (Patel, 5.2 ov), 3-81 (Klinger, 11.5 ov), 4-96 (Jadeja, 14.4 ov),5-134 (Jayawardene, 18.6 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	B Lee	4	1	42	0	10.50	(1nb)
	JD Unadkat	4	0	25	2	6.25	(1w)
	Iqbal Abdulla	2	0	16	0	8.00
	JH Kallis	3	0	21	0	7.00	(1w)
	S Ladda	1	0	13	0	13.00	(1nb)
	R Bhatia	3	0	22	1	7.33
	YK Pathan	3	0	16	1	5.33	(1w)

	Kolkata Knight Riders innings (target: 157 runs from 20 overs)		R	B	4s	6s	SR
	JH Kallis	b Gomez	45	41	5	0	109.75
	EJG Morgan	run out (†Patel/Vinay Kumar)	66	51	8	2	129.41
	G Gambhir*	c Jayawardene b Gomez	0	1	0	0	0.00
	MK Tiwary	c McCullum b Vinay Kumar	1	7	0	0	14.28
	YK Pathan	c Jayawardene b Vinay Kumar	17	13	2	0	130.76
	MV Boucher†	b Singh	5	4	0	0	125.00
	B Lee	run out (Jadeja/†Patel)	1	2	0	0	50.00
	R Bhatia	not out	1	1	0	0	100.00
	Extras	(lb 1, w 2)	3
	Total	(7 wickets; 20 overs)	139	(6.95 runs per over)

Did not bat Iqbal Abdulla, S Ladda, JD Unadkat

Fall of wickets1-69 (Kallis, 10.2 ov), 2-69 (Gambhir, 10.3 ov), 3-97 (Tiwary, 13.6 ov), 4-132 (Morgan, 18.4 ov),5-132 (Pathan, 18.5 ov), 6-138 (Lee, 19.4 ov), 7-139 (Boucher, 19.6 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	RP Singh	4	0	44	1	11.00	(1w)
	S Sreesanth	3	0	24	0	8.00	(1w)
	R Vinay Kumar	4	0	28	2	7.00
	P Parameswaran	4	0	21	0	5.25
	RV Gomez	4	1	14	2	3.50
	RA Jadeja	1	0	7	0	7.00