Knight Riders Remain Unbeaten

Twenty20 cricket was given a makeover in Kolkata on a bowler-friendly pitch on which the batsmen were forced to work for every run, the Deccan Chargers painstakingly making their way to a score of 110 all out in the fourth match of the IPL against the Knight Riders, who scrambled home thanks to two late sixes from David Hussey.The Knight Riders overcomes a lengthy stoppage due to floodlight failure and some late blows from Andrew Symonds (32) and Sanjay Bangar (14) which aided the Chargers' cause no end and it took until the 11th over of the reply for Hussey to hit the first maximum of the second innings.Brendon McCullum (five) and Ricky Ponting (nought) never got going but Saurav Ganguly (14) did before he was bowled by Pragyan Ojha, who also removed the hard-hitting Mohammad Hafeez for 13. Hafeez smashed Symonds down the ground for six before trying to reverse sweep Ojha, only finding the hands of Symonds who took a smart catch over his shoulder.Hafeez and David Hussey had up until then been keeping the runs ticking over and keeping the run rate required at just under or exactly a run a ball before a floodlight failed with the match critically poised.So critically, that had the lights not come back on, Duckworth-Lewis had the sides tied and a bowl-out would have been required.With 22 to win and 20 balls remaining, Hussey took Scott Styris for a six and a four from the last two balls of the 18th before winning the match with a straight hit off of Pragyan Ojha for a five-wicket win, the Kolkata side's second of the tournament.Earlier, Adam Gilchrist briefly flashed, twice hitting Ajit Agarkar over fine leg for six before the turn to spin undid both him and the rest of the batting line up. Attempting a repeat off of Murali Kartik he was caught in the deep by Mohammad Hafeez for 23.The next man to hit a maximum was Arjun Jadav who just cleared long-on off of David Hussey only to try it again two balls later and hole out to long-off. Another two balls, and another wicket with Chaminda Vaas (nought) spooning a catch to Saurav Ganguly at mid-off.Ishant Sharma started things off in the right manner by bowling a wicket maiden to see of Yalaka Venugopal Rao (ten) and captain VVS Laxman followed for a six-ball duck.Symonds played a watchful knock, finally hitting Hussey for consecutive sixes on the on-side in the 17th over and he was imitated two balls later by Sanjay Bangar to bring up the century.Rarely can an innings of 32 have disguised so much application and he looked fully worth his $1.35 million price tag before Hussey got some revenge by taking the catch that saw him dismissed off of Agarkar in the 18th over.Agarkar, whose first over disappeared for 16, came back to finish with two for 19 while Kartik, bowling on a pitch he would like to roll up and take everywhere with him, returned three for 17.Symonds, however, was scathing, claiming that such pitches that break up in the second or third over, will 'kill' the Twenty20 game.Laxman won the toss and chose to bat.