A high impact all-round performance from Azhar Mahmood,
his second of this Champions League Twenty20, gave qualifiers Auckland
Aces their third comprehensive victory in South Africa, and severely
damaged Kolkata Knight Riders' prospects of progress in the tournament.
Mahmood's timely wickets and composed innings during the chase, which
was supported by several top-order cameos, led Auckland to the target
with 14 balls to spare, a considerable boost to their net run rate.
While this was Auckland's first match of the Champions League proper, it
was Kolkata's second, and a second defeat left the IPL champions
needing to win both their remaining games, while keeping an eye on run
rate, in order to make the semi-finals from Group A.
After winning the toss on a cold and windy day in Cape Town, Kolkata
looked like setting a formidable total on two occasions, and both times
they were stymied by Mahmood. Gautam Gambhir had fallen early - caught
by Martin Guptill diving low and to his left at point - but despite the
new ball seaming and bouncing, Manvinder Bisla and Brendon McCullum had
begun finding the boundary regularly. They got to 72 for 1 in the ninth
over when left-arm spinner Ronnie Hira made the breakthrough by having
Bisla caught at long-off, and then it was over to Mahmood.
In his first over, Mahmood had Jacques Kallis caught at slip and Manoj
Tiwary caught and bowled off successive deliveries, reducing Kolkata to
72 for 4. His two-over spell contained a maiden and returned figures of 2
for 7. The loss of those wickets forced McCullum and Shakib Al Hasan to
consolidate and Auckland were able to drag the run rate from 8 down to
just above six and a half per over.
McCullum was Auckland's major threat and he began to break free with a
tremendous six against Andre Adams, charging the medium pacer and
smashing him beyond the midwicket boundary. Gareth Hopkins brought
Mahmood back for the next over - the 15th - and he had McCullum edging
behind with the third ball.
Shakib didn't last much longer, toe ending a slash off Kyle Mills to
deep cover to be dismissed for 15 off 22. He didn't come off with the
bat and his selection ahead of Brett Lee on a pitch that had seam
movement and bounce was questionable.
From 108 for 6 in the 17th over, Yusuf Pathan wasn't able to provide the
kind of acceleration he's done on occasion during the IPL. He managed
to pull twice in succession for fours, in the 18th over bowled by
Michael Bates, but Kolkata found the boundary only once in the last two
overs. Mahmood finished with 3 for 16 in his four overs, after he had
taken a five-for to knock out Hampshire in the qualifying stage.
Chasing 138, Lou Vincent waylaid Kolkata. In the first over, bowled by L
Balaji, Vincent smashed over mid-off and clipped over midwicket for
fours, before hitting a towering six over long-on. He slog swept Shakib
for another six to blast Auckland to 31 for 0 after two overs.
Realising Kolkata needed wickets and fast, Gambhir gave Narine the third
over and the spinner had Vincent top edging to square leg the ball
after conceding a boundary. Mahmood joined Guptill and the pair used the
buffer provided by Vincent's aggression to accumulate steadily, while
hitting the odd boundary. Auckland were 51 for 1 when the fielding
restrictions were lifted.
Auckland seemed to want to target some bowlers more than others and
Balaji was one of them. He returned to bowl the tenth and Mahmood
immediately hoisted towards deep square leg, where Pradeep Sangwan took
the catch but stepped on the boundary cushions. Guptill fell in that
over, slogging to long-on, leaving Auckland 62 to get off 61. Anaru
Kitchen then hit a four off his first ball and a six off his third,
hacking at the equation, while Mahmood calmly stayed the course.
With three runs to get and plenty of deliveries remaining, Mahmood
pulled to the square-leg boundary, the winning shot bringing up a
successive half-century in the Champions League.
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