Ganguly leads from the front to snatch a thrilling victory
With nothing to lose, Kolkata skipper came out firing all guns to lead from the front, scoring an unbeaten 86, while Umar Gul chipped in with a brilliant all-round performance to help their team clinch a thriller against Mohali on Sunday night, making sure that the hosts get their much needed face-saving victory before bowing out of the IPL here at the Eden Gardens.
Chasing 175, Kolkata had almost accepted their defeat, when Man-of-the-Match – Umar Gul walked in to join his skipper in the middle with six wicket down and all recognised batsmen back inside the pavilion.
Gul (24; 11 balls, 1x4, 3x6) along with Ganguly (86; 53 balls, 6x4, 6x6), who stood his ground right throughout the innings, stole 49 runs during their seventh wicket stand to snatch the 3-wicket victory from the jaws of defeat with 2 balls to spare, leaving Mohali in a state of shock.
After losing their sixth wicket in the form of Aakash Chopra with the scorecard reading a miserable 106-6 in 15.3 overs, Ganguly started to take his chances and was ably supported by Gul.
In a Piyush Chawla’s over, the former India captain took 18 runs, hitting 2 towering sixes to give a glimpse of hope to the home crowd, before he and Gul managed to take another 16 runs of a Sreesanth’s over to bring Kolkata right back on track.
Although, VRV Singh gave the much-needed breakthrough to Mohali by sending off Gul in the penultimate over but by then the Bengal southpaw was in a mood to finish it off.
Taking the responsibly, he denied the new batsman Ishant Sharma from taking a run in the last ball of the 19th over in order to keep the strike.
With 15 runs needed in the last over, Yuvraj brought in Irfan Pathan but Ganguly was determined to go for the kill and with two massive sixes, a two and a one, he handed out the formidable Mohali a defeat in 19.4 overs.
With Mohali already having booked a place in the last four of the IPL, a confident batting line-up toyed with Kolkata’s bowling after they opted to bat first earlier.
Keen to keep the winning momentum, Mohali batsmen dominated the proceeding with Kumar Sangakkara hitting his fourth IPL fifty and Shaun Marsh scoring 40 to pile up 174-6 in their allotted 20 overs.
In reply, Kolkata openers - Ganguly and Salman Butt put on a fine 45-run partnership in 5.2 overs, yet they never looked in the contention as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals thereafter.
However, they once again bounced back in the last four over.
Earlier, Sangakkara smashed a superb 45-ball 64 with 7 fours and 2 sixes, besides putting on an impressive 83-run partnership in 57 deliveries with Marsh for the second wicket as they sent the fielders on a leather hunt, while Kolkata made a mess of it all on the field with a number of dropped catches and sloppy fielding.
It was the lone bowler in Umar Gul (4-23), who had some success against the visitors but even he failed to pose much of a threat, expect for in the last over when he took two wickets in consecutive balls to return Irfan Pathan (7) and Piyush Chawla (0) to restrict Mohali reaching nearer to 200-run mark.
Mohali lost James Hopes (13) early but it failed to have any significance on their scoring rate with opener Marsh and Sangakkara simply keeping the rhythm going.
And thereafter, skipper Yuvraj Singh (18-ball 27) played a cameo, putting on 31 runs with Mahela Jayawardene (11 not out) before the former got run out in the penultimate over.
In the last over, Gul conceded only four runs besides taking two wickets to put some brakes.
Earlier, for the hosts, spinner Ajantha Mendis from Sri Lanka made his debut and took one wicket as well.
Teams:
Kolkata: Salman Butt, Sourav Ganguly (capt), David Hussey, Debabrata Das, Aakash Chopra, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ajantha Mendis, Umar Gul, Ishant Sharma, Ashok Dinda.
Mohali: James Hopes, Shaun Marsh, Yuvraj Singh (capt), Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Piyush Chawla, Tanmay Srivastava, Ramesh Powar, Irfan Pathan, VRV Singh, Sreesanth.