David Hussey clinches thriller at Eden Gardens

Kolkata: In a match that went right down to the wire, the climax seemed to be lifted straight from one of Kolkata Knight Riders' owner Shah Rukh Khan's blockbusters.
Locked in battle in an evenly matched, star-studded contest, the Deccan Chargers from Hyderabad were skittled out for 110 before they came back only to lose to out to some David Hussey brilliance on a wicket which appeared to have been exposed to at least eight days of continuous cricket.
If the Kanpur minefield in the recent India-South Africa Test was made to favour the home side, this particular track at the Eden was just that, enough for the Knight Riders to bundle out the visitors for 110 inside 20 overs. That there were any favours attached to it, is however unknown.
However, chasing the lowest total in the tournament so far, this one wasn't going to be a walk in the park. The Knight Riders were 89-5 after 16.4 overs. So bad was the pitch that it was almost embarrassing for Indian cricket's grandest stage — the Eden Gardens — that one of the light towers at the stadium went out.
Needing a solid opening stand, not necessarily by way of the runs on the board, the Knight Riders lost Brendon McCullum early, before Chaminda Vaas trapped Ricky Ponting leg before for his second successive failure.
Sourav Ganguly and David Hussey gutsed it out with the former taking a fierce blow on the rib as the duo ambled to their target. But Ganguly's dismissal not only spurred the visitors to stage an excellent fightback, but created a deafening silence at the packed Eden.
Had it been a blackout, the abrupt end couldn't have dented the tournament's spectacular progress, as the hosts were 89-5, exactly their cut-off score where they should have been. However, the lights were back on as David Hussey hit two mammoth sixes to guide the Knight Riders to their second straight win in the competition.
As VVS Laxman put it during the toss, this one was the "keen contest" everyone was looking forward to, as his Deccan Chargers Hydebarad outfit elected to bat here on Sunday.

Egged on by a vociferous Kolkata crowd, the game marked the return of the game's original daredevil, Adam Gilchrist taking first strike but it was not until the second over from Ishant Sharma that the devils underneath came to surface.
Massive puffs of dust, uneven bounce greeted the Hyderabad batsmen as Venugopal Rao perished to Ishant Sharma, before VVS Laxman miscued a pull shot straight to mid on after being wrapped on the knuckles.
The Deccan Chargers were in for more trouble with the introducion of spinners, as Gilchrist (23), Rohit Sharma (0) and Scott Styris (6) all fell trying to force the situation against the viciously turning ball.
A 39-ball 32 isn't the kind of knock you would associate Andrew Symonds to play in a Twenty20 game, but the Australian's hard grind was the top score on a minefield at the Eden.
Home hero Sourav Ganguly-led Kokata Knight Riders chose to retain the same side that trumped the Bangalore Royal Challengers in the tournament opener.
But their opponents were no small fry either, with the combination boasting of the explosive Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Scott Styris, coupled with the Indian elegance of VVS Laxman and Rohit Sharma.
Deccan Chargers Hyderabad: VVS Laxman (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Arjun Yadav, Andrew Symonds, Scott Styris, Rohit Sharma, Venugopal Rao, Chaminda Vaas, Sanjay Bangar, RP Singh, Pragyan Ojha.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Brendon McCullum, Ricky Ponting, David Hussey, Mohammad Hafeez, Laxmi Rattan Shukla, Wriddhiman Saha, Ajit Agarkar, Ashok Dinda, Murali Kartik, Ishant Sharma.

Gambhir, Dhawan shine in emphatic win

Delhi: It was almost a cakewalk for the Delhi Daredevils as they registered a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over the Rajasthan Royals in the third game of the inaugural IPL tourney at the Feroz shah kotla stadium here on Saturday.
Chasing a modest 129, Gautam Gambhir (58 not out) and Shikhar Dhawan (52 not out) put up an unbroken 112-run stand to take Delhi home. After Virender Sehwag was dismissed early, the duo flayed the Rajasthan bowling to finish the game in only 15.1 overs.
Gambhir making the most of his rich form, slammed seven boundaries and one six in his 46-ball knock. Dhawan too displayed his stroke making ability to plunder eight fours.
In what was a lackluster bowling show by Rajasthan, even skipper and spin wizard Shane Warne failed to make an impact, finishing with 0-16 in his two overs.
Earlier, Delhi displayed sharpness and discipline in the field to restrict the Rajasthan Royals to 129-8 in the allotted 20 overs.
Some lusty blows by Dinesh Salunke (29 not out) in the end of the innings helped Rajasthan to post a a somewhat fighting total after Delhi had pushed them to 93-7 at one stage.
Farveez Maharoof (2-11) and local boy Rajat Bhatia (2-17) bowled superbly in the middle overs, not allowing Rajasthan to get any sort of momentum in their innings.
Glenn Mcgrath stuck in his second over to send back Taruwar Kohli (seven) and with that the Rajasthan team dug a hole for themselves as regular wickets pushed them back. Yusuf Pathan (10) and Shane Watson (21) were run out and Darren Lehmann (one) and Mohammad Kaif (nine) took the long walk back soon. The Rajasthan Royals slumped to 57-5 in the 11th over.
Under-19 recruit Ravindra Jadeja battled hard as he attempted to recover the Rajasthan innings but the experienced Daniel Vettori scalped him for 29.
Teams:

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Rajnikanth to launch ‘Bujjigadu’ audio

The Prabha-Trisha combo, the hit pair of ‘Varsham’, is going appear again for ‘Bujjigadu’ (Made in Chennai), directed by Puri Jagannath and produced by KS Prakasa Rao on the banner of Creative Commercials. The audio of ‘Bujjigadu’ is expected to hit the market after April 18.
The audio launch, however, would be away from Hyderabad. It is reliably learnt that the film unit is planning to release the audio through the hands of South Indian Super Star Rajnikanth at Chennai on April 18. It is worth mentioning here that Puri Jagannath had brought out the film different from routine and the dialogue modulation of the hero was set in a typical style. The dialogues penned for the hero’s character will have a Tamil scent, coupled with East Godavari Telugu slang.

No friendship with Dhoni on field: Yuvraj

Mohali: Mahendra Singh Dhoni may be his good friend in the dressing room but on the field he will fight it out without leaving any space to take an edge, especially when pride is at stake before the "home crowd," says Yuvraj Singh.


"There is no friendship on the field. We will want to win the game and have an upper hand in the competition," said Yuvraj, captain of the Indian Premier League's Kings XI Mohali team, ahead of their opening match on Saturday.


"Maybe, I will share a joke with him after the game," added Yuvraj, who will take on Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings.


"It's a good way to build the hype (around the competition) by pitching it as Yuvraj versus Dhoni contest," he said.


Dressed in a white T-shirt and cargos, Yuvraj, who reached here in his yellow sports car, was beaming with confidence and looked excited about the IPL's inaugural Twenty20 championship.


Yuvraj does not agree that too much cricket will be played with IPL happening now.


"IPL is going to be there just for 44 days, rest of the time we play international cricket. I don't know why people go overboard when they say IPL will do this or do that (talk negative about the League)," he said.


The Yuvraj-led team has a formidable batting line-up with Mahela Jayawardene, Simon Katich, Kumar Sangakkara, and youngsters like Karan Goel and Uday Kaul in the side.


Australian pacer Brett Lee is spearheading the bowling attack along with S Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan.

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