Cape Town: Kolkata Knight Rider’s (KKR) semifinals hopes received a serious dent as they crashed to second successive defeat of the Champions League T20 here on Monday.
Riding on Azhar Mahmood’s all-round performance Auckland Aces thrashed KKR by seven wickets in a crucial Group A match.
Bowling first, Mahmood’s brilliant spell of 3-16 helped his team restrict the IPL champions for 137-6, and while batting hit an unbeaten 51 to chase down the target with 14 balls to spare.
Auckland in pursuit of a meagre 138 got off to a flier and it was the opener Lou Vincent who took the attack to the KKR bowlers. Laxmipathy Balaji opening the bowling for his team gave 17 runs in the first over.
Vincent was on a roll and dispatched everything that came his way. Sensing urgency, Sunil Narine was introduced by Gautam Gambhir in the third over and the move did work as Vincent got out trying to heave Narine. He scored 30 of 12 deliveries including three fours and two sixes.
However the wicket did not bring much respite for them as Mahmood joined Guptill at the crease and they carried on the good work. However the scoring rate slowed but then inability to get breakthroughs made things worse for Kolkata.
KKR finally got Guptill out in the 10th over with the scorecard reading 76. Guptill scored 25 off 26 deliveries that included three fours. His wicket brought Anaru Kitchen to the crease and he looked to be in a hurry to finish off the match. With Mahmood playing the role of an anchor at the other end, Kitchen launched an assault on the bowlers and quickly raced off to 24 off 15 deliveries including three fours and a six.
It was then seasoned Mahmood and Colin de Grandhomme who saw Auckland home. Mahmood innings was laced with three fours and a couple of sixes.
Earlier batting first, after a good first wicket partnership between Brendon McCullum and Manvinder Bisla gave KKR a good start but then flurry of wickets in the middle saw Auckland get back into the game.
Kolkata lost their skipper Gambhir for cheap and then it was the duo of McCullum and Bisla who put 62 runs partnership for the second wicket.
But Bisla’s wicket dismissal triggered a collapse and from 72-1, they were 98-5. Bisla scored 38 off 24 balls including six fours and a six whereas McCullum hit 40 off 35 deliveries laced with three fours and couple of sixes.
KKR could not recover from the collapse and Rajat Bhatia and Yusuf Pathan saw them limp to 137.
Brief scores:
Auckland Aces 139 for 3 (Mahmood 51*) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 137 for 6 (McCullum 40, Mahmood 3-16) by seven wickets
By Indian Sports News Network