Auckland’s batsmen had hoped to take advantage of some pace in their chase, but floundered against an army of slower bowlers
Abhishek Purohit20-Sep-2011From the moment Martin Guptill was run out first ball, there was asense of foreboding to Auckland’s chase. The asking rate was never goingto be an issue, at least not till the very end. Auckland like pace on the ball; the pitch didn’t have much and Kolkata weren’t going to provide it. Apart from Lou Vincent’s meaty blows – whichmostly came off Jaidev Unadkat’s helpful medium pace – Auckland werestifled by Kolkata’s army of two contrasting left-arm spinners, anoffspinner and a bowler who deals in slower ones and wobblycutters.At one stage it seemed that Vincent would force an early finish as he torein to Unadkat, leaving Auckland with 80 to get off 90 deliveries. But thenext over from Yusuf Pathan provided a peek in to what lay in store forAuckland. Vincent missed an attempted reverse sweep, top-edged aconventional sweep over short fine leg and barely escaped when he exposedhis stumps to have a swish at a full delivery. The required rate was justabove five an over, but the lack of pace was forcing Vincent to try and create opportunities to score.Rajat Bhatia came on from the other end to cause more problems forAuckland. He usually arrives with a bagful of offcutters, legcutters andslower ones and it was no different today. If anything, he bowled withgreater control.Not that the pitch made Yusuf and Bhatia unplayable, but the flow reduced to atrickle soon after Vincent scored runs in a torrent. Auckland had managed only three off Bhatia’s second over whenVincent ran himself out trying to create a run.Auckland had staged a recovery from the first-ball setback butrepeating the feat became increasingly improbable as batsman afterbatsman dug a hole for himself. Rob Quiney followed James Adamsand three had gone for one run in four balls. The crowd roaredalong with Yusuf as he went on his knees, arms spread wide, to celebrateQuiney’s fall.Yusuf and Bhatia bowled out soon but Kolkata had reinforcements ready.Iqbal Abdulla and Shakib Al Hasan came on to bowl four overs that cost 18,14 of them in hard-earned singles.Still, getting nine an over to win in the last three is something thatis seen quite often in Twenty20s. But rarely when two of those overs arebowled by Brett Lee. Auckland had been hemmed in by the lack of pace allalong. Now with the pressure mounting, they were battered with Lee’sspeed and complete control. Missile after missile crashed in tothe blockhole to be met by inadequate inside-edges. Auckland were only onebig hit away from victory in the last over but it never looked likecoming. They had hoped to ride on the center of pace; they were done in by its left and right.
