Kolkata clinch cliffhanger, beat Bangalore by 5 runs (IPL Match 29 - Charged Up Kolkata Win Fierce Battle v Banalore 2008)

Having already experienced a cliffhanger between Delhi and Chennai during the day, it made for a perfect build-up for the rematch featuring Kolkata and Bangalore, the sides who set the stage up for the Indian Premier League.

It didn't go down to the last ball — Ishant Sharma bowled a brilliant final over — but two dot balls as Kolkata prevailed by five runs at the Eden Gardens here on Thursday.

Needing 34 runs from the last two overs, Mark Boucher, who scratched around early on in his partnership with Cameron White (30) as the duo got Bangalore back in the match, took it upon himself as White was run out on the first ball of the penultimate over. But despite taking 15 runs from the next four balls, the South African wicketkeeper-batsman denied a single to Praveen Kumar off the final ball to keep strike.

Boucher (50 not out) started the final over off Ishant in fine fashion as he hoicked the first ball to the boundary but refused another single next ball. The Indian speedster kept his nerve as Boucher didn't get the big shot, condemning Bangalore to their sixth defeat in eight games.

Man of the match Sourav Ganguly swung the pendulum back for his side with the ball. His three overs costed just seven runs which included the wicket of Rahul Dravid, while Ishant Sharma picked up another which included an outstanding spell at the death. But it was stupendous fielding from both sides which set a new fielding benchmark in the competition.

Two fantastic run outs got Bangalore the upper hand in the match, as Kolkata were restricted to 129-7 in the first rain-curtailed encounter of the IPL, before the Sourav Ganguly led side took the standards to an unheralded high in the field.

The early loss of Shivnarine Chanderpaul prompted Karnataka’s veteran batsman J Arunkumar (22) to launch an assault on Umar Gul in the fifth over of play, before Brad Hodge sensationally stopped a skimmer at point and threw the stumps down. But it was a long forgotten man from the cricketing circles who made the capacity Eden Gardens crowd stand up and take notice.

Tatenda Taibu, the diminutive former Zimbabwe captain playing his first game in the tournament, was not donning the gloves behind the stumps. Fielding at mid-on in the fourth over, he pulled off an astounding save. Hit firmly to his right, for a small man, Taibu ran huge steps before diving parallel to the ground to keep it down to one what would have been a sure boundary.

Fortunes had dramatically changed for Kolkata since the IPL opener against Bangalore on April 18. With the departure of Brendon McCullum, wins had also deserted them. After Ganguly opted to bat after rains reduced the rematch of the curtain raiser to 16 overs-a-side, the hosts just managed 129-7 against Bangalore. It could have been worse, had Wriddhiman Saha (17 not out) and Murali Kartik (17) not rescued them from a precarious 88-6.

For Bangalore, it was their South African import, Dale Steyn, who stood out with the ball with figures of 3-28. Kolkata, who opened with a new pair in Akash Chopra and Brad Hodge, didn't succeed as both were sent back with 20 runs on the board. Ganguly, batting at No. 3, steadied up but was a victim of a spectacular run out by Cameron White for 20, a dismissal he is quite familiar with.

All of the middle order batsmen reached double figures but threw it away. David Hussey clubbed three sixes and a four in his 26 but soon figured in the run-out column himself.

Both sides made wholesale changes to their line-ups following a series of defeats, with Kolkata handing Aakash Chopra his IPL debut, along with the inclusion of Zimbabwean Tatenda Taibu, who played only as a batsman. Murali Kartik and Ashok Dinda also returned to the side, while Bangalore included Shivnarine Chanderpaul, J Arunkumar and R Vinay Kumar.

Kolkata thrashed Bangalore at the Chinnaswamy stadium on April 18 but had not won a game after winning their second, against Hyderabad. Bangalore, on the other hand, remain stuck at the bottom of the points table, and have been rattled by the sacking of their CEO after their string of losses.

Teams:

Kolkata: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Akash Chopra, Brad Hodge, David Hussey, Tatenda Taibu, Wriddhiman Saha, Laxmi Rattan Shukla, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma, Umar Gul, Ashok Dinda.

Bangalore: Rahul Dravid (captain), Shivnarine Chanderpaul, J Arunkumar, Mark Boucher, Cameron White, R Vinay Kumar, Virat Kohli, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Anil Kumble, Dale Steyn.