All posts by csb10.top

Barring their superior performance in the second Twenty20 of the tour, Pakistan have not given South Africa many lessons to learn. It is a Pakistani fast bowler, though, that South Africa bowling coach Allan Donald is holding up as an example to his charges, because he wants them to emulate his exemplary ability to endanger toes.”It’s Wasim Akram,” Donald said in Centurion, where the team regrouped ahead of the second ODI on Friday. “We watched some footage of him the other day for the bowling group to understand what bowling yorkers is actually about.”We want to become the best death-bowling unit in the world and we want to close games out while being under enormous pressure. With Wasim Akram you always knew when you faced him at the death that there was no hope. He moved the ball both ways and that’s what we want to be: unpredictable, not just one dimensional.”Death bowling was identified as perhaps the only weakness of the South African attack after their series against New Zealand earlier this summer. They set New Zealand only 209 to win the first match, so an examination of their bowling there is probably unfair, but in the next two games South Africa’s attack gave away 53 and 46 runs in the last five overs.Allan Donald wants his bowlers to make batsman hop•Getty Images

To prevent that happening again, Donald introduced a new goal in the Pakistan series. “Nailing yorkers is our No.1 priority,” he said. “Not being able to bowl them often enough is what has let us down in the past, particularly when we are defending.”Instead of regular net sessions where bowlers send down a specific number of overs, Donald has set training up to concentrate on fuller lengths. He uses both newer and older balls to get bowlers to bowl deliveries that swing and reserve-swing, and he also recreates match situations. “We want to practice the specifics under pressure and so we are moving more into game scenarios and executing those then. We also video these sessions so the guys can have visual feedback.”Since Rusty Theron’s brief appearance and subsequent injury, death bowling has not been assigned to anyone in particular and some have seen that as a fault. Role definition has proven to be essential to South Africa’s success – think of the failure of the floating batting line-up as an example – and it would seem prudent to task one or two bowlers with that job.Donald is not doing that, though, because he wants the whole attack to become competent at death bowling. “We want a collective group of guys who get thrown the ball and who have the confidence to execute yorkers at will at any stage,” he said. “We could have a situation where Dale Steyn is the death bowler and his number may come up and he gets hit all around the park, and so we might have to ask someone else to do that. We want a collective improvement in bowling yorkers.”Lonwabo Tsotsobe, Rory Kleinveldt and Ryan McLaren have all shown ability to find the base of the stumps but none of them do it consistently. What they are more comfortable with is sending down streams of short balls and McLaren, in particular, used it effectively in the first ODI.Donald said the move to more yorkers will not stop them from bouncing batsmen. “We’ve talked about using the short ball in Bloemfontein because of the very big field there and it worked,” he said. “We will still use the short ball, it is a massive weapon in one-day cricket.”But an intimidating arsenal needs more than just one dangerous weapon and Donald wants to equip his bowlers with what he believes is the best. “Whether it’s wide, swinging into the pads, or winging away from a large angle, we need to bowl the yorker. Anyone can hit back of a length, anyone has a back of a hand bouncer but you need a wicket, the ball that really does it is a gun yorker.”

The Afghanistan Cricket Board has sought the help of the Indian board to develop cricket in the country. Officials from the ACB met BCCI representatives in Mumbai on Sunday to discuss how the Indian board could support Afghanistan cricket.”We had a good meeting with BCCI honorary secretary (Sanjay Jagdale) and general manager for game development (Ratnakar Shetty),” Shahzada Masoud, the ACB chairman, said. “It’s in the initial stage. We want to build up good relations with BCCI. We want help to develop technical staff, coaches, umpires, scorers and video analysts.”Also present at the meeting held at the Cricket Club of India was ACB’s high performance programme manager, Basheer Stanekzai. “We are preparing a new Under-19 team as the last World Cup team is over-aged.” he said. “We have selected a 20-member squad. We are working on it and preparing for the ACC (Asian Cricket Council) Under-19 Cup to be held in Malaysia from May 1 to 12. That’s the qualification round for the next U-19 World Cup. We need good coaches, especially in terms of batting.”The meeting comes a week after Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan called on the BCCI to do more to help Afghanistan cricket, highlighting England’s support for their neighbouring Associate nations.

The breakaway American Cricket Foundation has made public a draft constitution for review on its web site as it continues its gradual growth towards mounting a challenge against the USA Cricket Association to become the officially recognised governing body for cricket in America by the ICC.The proposed constitution includes key differences from USACA’s method of governance such as term limits and the offer of membership to individual players and clubs separate from leagues.”It has long been our goal to provide US Cricket with a selfless platform that will unite all cricket constituencies through a universal appeal that can accelerate US cricket development,” Gangaram Singh, coordinator of the ACF constitution committee, said in an ACF press release.The proposed term limits would cap any ACF board member’s service at a maximum of eight consecutive years. Term limits were suggested as an amendment to the USACA Constitution by several candidates ahead of the USACA general election in April. USACA President Gladstone Dainty, who won re-election in April, has been in that role since 2003. In Dainty’s time as USACA president, USACA has twice been suspended by the ICC during periods marked by internal struggles and poor governance.The offer to individual players and clubs of membership, and potentially voting privileges with it, would be a major shift from the USACA administration. Currently, USACA voting rights are offered to member leagues only, which was a source of controversy at the April elections when 32 out of the 47 member leagues were disenfranchised. As a result, it only took a majority of eight votes to decide the winner for each race.ACF on the other hand seems determined to offer membership to as many constituents as possible as part of its mission of inclusion. While member leagues would vote for six of the 11 director positions on the ACF board of directors, the proposed constitution states that all individual players and clubs would be eligible to vote for other at-large director positions on the board so that every cricketer would have a legitimate say in electing their representatives. The initial proposal is for five player votes to be equivalent to one member club vote in any election for the at-large directors.Separate from the proposed ACF board of directors, the constitution also calls for the formation of an advisory and judicial committee comprised mainly of player representatives. The lack of any player representation in USACA committees has been a stumbling block preventing them from gaining recognition from the United States Olympic Committee. The ACF is understood to be aggressively pursuing USOC recognition which would do a great deal to legitimise their efforts.While the immediate prospects of the ACF being recognized by the ICC are slim, gaining and maintaining USOC recognition could be valuable down the road for the ACF if Twenty20 cricket is eventually introduced into the Olympic program. Having USOC recognition could mean the ACF gets to select a US representative side for the Olympics and not USACA. It would be a solid bargaining chip to wave in front of the ICC in an attempt to usurp USACA’s status as the ICC’s officially recognized governing body.If the majority of the 32 disenfranchised leagues from the USACA general election in April formally become members of ACF, it would also mean they would have a bigger membership base than USACA. It could allow them to pose an argument to the ICC that they are representative of a wider number of constituents in the USA than USACA. In a lawsuit filed by former USACA Executive Secretary Kenwyn Williams, court documents show an affidavit filed by Dainty in which he states that there are currently 12 member leagues in USACA.If the ACF continues on the path of growth and engages in a struggle with USACA over ICC recognition, it could lead to another ICC suspension for US Cricket.USA was locked out of international cricket in 2005 due to poor governance after the Council of League Presidents got into a legal battle with USACA over the 2005 USACA election results. At the time, USA was scheduled to participate in the ICC Intercontinental Cup first-class cricket tournament for Associates after having done so in 2004 but USA was removed from the 2005 edition during suspension and hasn’t participated since.In 2006, the entity known as Major League Cricket petitioned the ICC to become the recognised governing body of cricket in the USA to replace USACA. MLC’s attempts at recognition were eventually rebuffed. USACA was suspended again in 2007 after failing to ratify a constitution. They were scheduled to participate in ICC World Cricket League Division Three that year, but were instead demoted to Division Five due to suspension. USA had qualified and played in the ICC Champions Trophy as recently as 2004 but they have struggled to climb back up the Associate ranks ever since they were readmitted into international cricket in 2008.The ACF has its origins in the aftermath of the controversial USACA general elections in April 2012 in which 32 out of the 47 USACA member leagues were deemed ineligible by the incumbent USACA board ahead of the election following a USACA compliance review. In May, a group of league presidents from among the 32 disenfranchised leagues banded together to declare their intent to discontinue their membership in USACA and form a new rival organisation called Cricket America before changing their name to the American Cricket Federation.In October, the ACF held their inaugural Twenty20 National Championship in Los Angeles which was won by the Southern California Cricket Association, who defeated the Cricket League of New Jersey in the final. The tournament featured 15 games across three days all played on turf wickets at Woodley Park. By comparison, USACA only managed to schedule a single national tournament match in 2012, a 50-over contest in Florida on November 11. Neither the ACF nor USACA have set any domestic tournament dates for 2013.

ScorecardTim Paine made an unbeaten 74•Getty Images

Tim Paine starred with an unbeaten 74 in the run chase after Hobart Hurricanes’ bowlers restricted the enigmatic Perth Scorchers line-up. Set 153 to win, Paine controlled the chase sublimely. He was unfazed when he lost his opening partner Aiden Blizzard early. It brought Paine and Ricky Ponting together again after they combined for a century stand against Sydney Thunder two-games earlier.There was an element of “anything you can do I can do better” between the master, Ponting, and the apprentice Paine.Paine, who has represented Australia in Tests, struck three consecutive boundaries off the inexperienced Jason Behrendorff in the fifth over. Ponting answered with a streaky leading edge to the point fence off Nathan Coulter-Nile and a phenomenal lofted cover drive for six at the other end. Paine took Behrendorff to task the following over with two powerful blows, through and over the leg-side.The pair raced to a 90-run stand, and in doing so made the required run-rate almost irrelevant. That was until Ponting fell to Brad Hogg, top-edging a paddle shot to short fine leg. It became two victims in two balls when Travis Birt was trapped on the crease to a trademark Hogg wrong ‘un.Hogg could have been the difference had he garnered support from others. When he lured a soft return catch from Owais Shah, he had figures of 3 for 13. But runs flowed like currents through the Derwent at the other end. Paine, unperturbed, cruised home with the steady support of his captain George Bailey. The Hurricanes won comfortably with six wickets and nine balls to spare.Having come from a heatwave in Western Australia, the Scorchers froze in the first match of the New Year, and without the contribution of Simon Katich they might have struggled to set a total of any significance.Electing to bat after winning the toss, Scorchers lost their first wicket to Xavier Doherty who delivered a wicket-maiden to start the match. Herschelle Gibbs cut a waist-high catch to point on the third ball of the innings.Shaun Marsh was struck a nasty blow on the thumb from a fired-up Doug Bollinger in the second over. The left-arm quick removed the in-form Marsh not long after, to leave the Scorchers reeling at 2 for 10.Then Katich produced arguably the innings of the tournament. His 66 from just 41 balls proved unequivocally that he is still a player of immeasurable quality at this level, even in a format he is not renowned for. He struck four sixes, including back-to-back bombs from the pace of Bollinger. His nine boundaries in all found every corner of Bellerive. His preference was midwicket, but he pulled Gulbis from one knee behind square and uppercut him over the point fence. He also struck Doherty over extra cover for four using nothing more than some delightful footwork and a gentle punch with the bottom hand.Katich was ably supported by his trusty lieutenants Marcus North and Adam Voges, but neither could cash in on starts. All three fell to the canny skills of Ben Laughlin who is turning into a major weapon for the Hobart side.The Scorchers return home to face the winless Sydney Thunder on Friday, whilst the Hurricanes host the Adelaide Strikers on Saturday night.

The Sindh High Court has issued a notice to the PCB, after accepting former Pakistan wicketkeeper Rashid Latif’s petition that challenged PCB’s constitution and sought a ‘fair and transparent’ functioning of the board.The PCB, though, is yet to receive the Sindh High Court notice but ready to face the writ petition against them.”As and when the notice will be received, PCB will be appearing before the honorable Sindh High Court and defend the petition,” PCB legal advisor, Tafulzul Rizvi, told ESPNcricinfo.”PCB have openly defend such petitions before the honorable higher courts of Pakistan and will be doing the same.”The petition challenges two posts in the PCB, those of the director general and the security advisor, and seeks a new constitution in line with the ICC directives. “The powers assigned to the patron of PCB, who is the president of Pakistan, are in complete disregard and violation of the Constitution, as they smack of a non-transparent and discriminatory approach of the board,” the petition said.”The way the PCB is being governed is a point of concern,” Latif’s lawyer, Abdul Sattar Pirzada, told ESPNcricinfo. “Rashid’s petition is not an adversarial one but merely for the public interest as we are not against any person but the system and the functioning within the PCB.”This is a democratic country and the PCB should have to function [according to a] democratic process to operate in a fair and transparent manner wherein the composition of the officials of the PCB, including the chairman, is based on an electoral process. The goal ultimately is the betterment of Pakistan cricket.”There are two system working within the PCB in parallel to each other and the direct appointee (the director general) overwhelms most of the cricketing decision. Our petition seeks an electoral system with elected people should take decisions similarly in the other successful cricketing countries.”Pirzada was aware that the ICC had given its member boards two years to become democratised, and free from government and political interference, to improve governance within the game. In Pakistan, the president appoints the chairman of the board, and holds the power to approve the appointment of the governing board members.”The blatant and admitted failure of the government of Pakistan to amend or pass a new constitution in accordance with the directives of the ICC is a clear and flagrant violation of the very purposes for which the PCB was established under Section 3 of the Ordinance 1962, i.e. for developing uniform standards of competition in sports in Pakistan comparable to standards prevailing internationally,” the petition said.The petition filed under Article 199 of the constitution of Pakistan also challenged the capacity of the director general Javed Miandad and the security advisor Ehsan Sadiq (PCB Director Security and Vigilance).The post of the director general was first created in 2008 by former chairman Ijaz Butt, with Miandad first being assigned the post. Its exact nature and ambit lacked clarity until present chairman Zaka Ashraf gave Miandad a formal administrative role to work on. He was given, in August this year, the responsibility of supervising Pakistan’s domestic and international cricket operations.

New Zealand Cricket chairman Chris Moller has apologised to Ross Taylor for the manner in which the team’s captaincy changeover played out, but he said there was no need for heads to roll over the saga.Brendon McCullum replaced Taylor as captain in all formats last week after Taylor declined an offer to stay on as leader in Tests only, and the way the captaincy issue was handled left Taylor feeling disaffected enough to sit out of the upcoming tour of South Africa. Much of the tension surrounded the relationship between Taylor and the coach Mike Hesson, who recommended changes in the limited-overs leadership.”The board has reviewed all aspects of the captaincy issue and wishes to publicly place on record its apologies to Ross Taylor and his family for the manner in which events have unfolded,” Moller told a press conference in Wellington on Wednesday.Moller also said that “additional material” on the captaincy saga had come to light and would be reviewed by NZC. However, he said there was no need for any sackings over the messy way the changeover was played out in the public.”No heads are going to roll,” Moller said. “here were no hanging offences in all of this. Yeah, the ball’s been dropped, absolutely. Could we have done things better? Absolutely. Are we going to learn from those mistakes? Well we hope so. Is there any reason for anybody to have their heads taken off? No, and that is a decision the board has made.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Manoj Tiwary and Gautam Gambhir made half-centuries that set the stage for a late onslaught•AFP

It was a low-key series that was overshadowed by the Olympics, but it resulted in a dramatic change in the rankings as India climbed up to No. 2 after shutting out Sri Lanka 4-1. India seemed to have the final one-dayer in the bag after running up 294 and then reducing Sri Lanka to 102 for 5, but a spirited stand between the inexperienced Lahiru Thirimanne and Jeevan Mendis kept the visitors sweating till the end.Irfan Pathan more or less guaranteed the result in the 43rd over as he removed Mendis and Thisara Perera on his way to his second ODI five-for, capping a match in which he had already made an important contribution with the bat. A late replacement for the injured Vinay Kumar, Irfan has sealed his place as a bowling allrounder with his eight wickets at 26.37 and two vital performances with the bat.He troubled Sri Lanka in his first over itself, getting Tillakaratne Dilshan to hole out to third man. In the absence of the injured Kumar Sangakkara and the resting Mahela Jayawardene – the first time in two years that the pair were missing an ODI – Dilshan had a big role to play, but fell for a duck.Sri Lanka maintained a scorching pace early on, but lost their way once Upul Tharanga chipped a catch to cover in the eighth over. Dinesh Chandimal’s forgettable series continued as he fell lbw to Ashok Dinda for 8, Angelo Mathews’ first innings as one-day captain was ended by a direct hit from Manoj Tiwary, and Chamara Kapugedera wasted his umpteenth international comeback, walking after an lbw appeal.That looked like game, set and match India but Sri Lanka weren’t done yet. Thirimanne played his second responsible knock at No. 3 in five days, and Jeevan Mendis continued to prompt questions over why he had been offered such scattered opportunities with the national team so far after another battling innings. The two patiently resurrected the innings, and through some sensible cricket brought Sri Lanka back into the game, and when the part-time spin of Manoj Tiwary was caned for 14 in the 34th over, Sri Lanka were 187 for 5. With the big-hitting Perera still to come, they had a great chance of pulling off a consolation comeback victory.

Smart stats

• India completed a 4-1 win in a bilateral five-match away/neutral ODI series for only the third time. The last time they did so was against Sri Lanka in 2008-09.

• The win is India’s fifth against Sri Lanka in ODIs in Sri Lanka by a margin of 20 runs or fewer. The four other wins by lower margins have come at the Premadasa stadium.

• For the seventh time against Sri Lanka in away/neutral ODIs, three Indian batsmen scored half-centuries in an innings. The last time this happened was at the Premadasa stadium in 2008.

• Rohit Sharma’s aggregate of 13 runs in the five matches is the lowest for an Indian top-order (1-7) batsman in an ODI series (min five innings batted). There have been only three other batsmen who have scored fewer than Rohit’s 13 runs in a five-match series.

• Irfan Pathan’s five-wicket haul is the ninth for an Indian bowler in ODIs against Sri Lanka. However, the 61 runs conceded by him are the highest by an Indian bowler who has picked up a five-for.

• The 102-run stand between Jeevan Mendis and Lahiru Thirimanne is the sixth century stand for the sixth wicket for Sri Lanka in ODIs against India. The highest is 133 between Russell Arnold and Marvan Atapattu in 2005.

• The 110-run stand between Gautam Gambhir and Manoj Tiwary is the third-highest fourth-wicket stand for India in ODIs against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.

• Virat Kohli’s series tally of 296 runs is the third-highest for an Indian batsman in a bilateral ODI series against Sri Lanka. The highest aggregate is MS Dhoni’s 346 runs in 2005.

Thirimanne, though, was run-out after a mix-up, and though Mendis kept Sri Lanka afloat, Perera slugged a catch to deep point. When Mendis’ outstanding innings ended on 72 with a nick to the keeper off Irfan, Sri Lanka’s hopes evaporated.India’s top order gave a better account of themselves than Sri Lanka’s. There were half-centuries for Gautam Gambhir and MS Dhoni but the most significant innings in the dead rubber could be Manoj Tiwary’s 65. For the second match in a row, he turned in a solid performance, strengthening his credentials for a hotly contested spot in the India’s middle-order, most likely at the expense of Rohit Sharma.Rohit, given a remarkably long rope by the team management, flopped for the fifth game in a row; his tally of 13 runs in the series is the lowest by a specialist India batsman in a five-match series and the chorus for his axing is only going to get louder.Tiwary’s debut was famously delayed by a shoulder injury in 2007, and he has had seven ODIs in the five years since. A match-winning century in another dead rubber last December only led to a long spell on the bench, but a four-for with some part-time leg spin in the previous match and a steadying 110-run partnership with Gambhir should earn him a few matches in the upcoming New Zealand series at home.For the second time in three games, Malinga began an over in the batting Powerplay with two wickets in two balls, as he removed Tiwary and then the in-form Suresh Raina as India slid to 197 for 5. But, as in the third ODI, Irfan showed off his improved batting, and gave the specialist batsman enough of the strike to take apart the Sri Lanka bowling. That day it had been Raina, today it was Dhoni, who has had little to do in this series as players above him in the order have repeatedly done the job for the side. Dhoni began by carving Malinga for consecutive boundaries through cover and a typically busy innings, interspersed with boundaries, helped India take 75 off the final 10 overs.While Dhoni piloted India at the end, Gambhir did it at the start. Even as Ajinkya Rahane failed to grab his chance, Virat Kohli had a rare failure and Rohit’s horror run extended, Gambhir was unperturbed. Once again, he managed to score at almost a run a ball without seeming to play any big hits as he made his way to his third fifty-plus score of the series. He was closing in on his seventh ODI hundred against Sri Lanka before he was done in by the extra bounce from Senanayake.It didn’t matter, though as Irfan and Dhoni powered India to a big score, one which proved too tall for an inexperienced Sri Lanka line-up.

South Africa Under-19s will be without fast bowler Rabian Engelbrecht at the World Cup in Australia this month, after he was forced to withdraw from the tournament with a back strain. The news of his injury arrived two days prior to the team’s departure for the World Cup, which begins in Queensland on August 11. He will be replaced by Easterns left-arm quick Vincent Moore in the squad.Cricket South Africa youth cricket manager Niels Momberg said the loss of the experienced Engelbrecht was a blow for the team. “This is really tough on Rabian, and from an experience point of view, the team have taken a knock as he is the only player who has been to a World Cup. [But] for Vincent Moore, this is a great opportunity for him to prove himself. He has improved a lot at the national academy, and was selected as a fast bowler reserve for his efforts.”

Northamptonshire have bought the freehold of their Wantage Road ground as they further their aim to become “one of the best non-Test grounds in the country.”The club, who have leased the ground for more than a century, have paid a six-figure sum for the land which they hope will enable them to pursue further development plans. The funds for the purchase came from a legacy left by their former president, the late Lynn Wilson.In the short term, the club aim to improve their outdoor practise facilities in the hope of attracting more fixtures involving international touring teams. They will also be able to use the ground as collateral with their bankers.”This purchase gives the club a good opportunity to continue developing the ground,” chief executive David Smith said. “And developments such as the outdoor nets facility will enhance our reputation within the game and it should benefit the club in securing future international touring team fixtures, as our improving facilities will be a big attraction to them.””We’re looking to develop the ground further when funds are available and owning the ground gives us security going forward,” Martin Lawrence, the club’s chairman, told the . “In the short term we’ve got to look after our squad and it’s important to get the balance right between the cricket side of things and the ground. I’m looking at maybe a five-year plan and possibly a small hotel or a block of flats but we haven’t made any decisions yet.”It gives us much more freedom to develop it however we wish. To the average spectator it won’t make a lot of difference but to those involved it’s very significant. We all believe it’s an important step for us.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Piyush Chawla applied brakes to Knight Riders’ scoring with three big wickets in the middle overs•AFP

A triple strike from Piyush Chawla in the middle of the Knight Riders innings and last over heroics from Harmeet Singh brought Kings XI back from the dead to beat their hosts in unlikely fashion. After posting a below par 134 and allowing Knight Riders to canter to 71 for 2 at the halfway stage of the chase, Kings XI relied on a spectacular effort from their legspinner to negate Sunil Narine’s jaw-dropping 5 for 19.Narine’s strangling efforts and Rajat Bhatia and Shakib al Hasan’s supporting efforts kept the lid on Kings XI. Knight Riders were favoured to chase down a moderate target after Gautam Gambhir started with a speedy 22 and Manvinder Bisla and Manoj Tiwary steered the reply with a stand of 43. But, the home side unravelled after Chawla removed three of their key batsmen, Bisla, Yusuf Pathan and Shakib. Debrabata Das threatened to take the match to its expected conclusion with his aggressive innings but a slew of legbreaks from Harmeet ensured Kings XI defended what seemed hard to defend at one stage.Gambhir began in a hurry. The early loss of Jacques Kallis – caught spectacularly by Paras Dogra at point – did nothing to deter him as he collected boundaries at will before offering Dimitri Mascarenhas a simple return catch.Despite the departure of their captain, Bisla and Tiwary continued the task stoically and formed a partnership that would not have been out of place in longer formats of the game. They rotated strike, searched for singles and only targeted the boundary when they got a bad ball. They seemed certain to guide Knight Riders to an easy win but the match turned when Tiwary was trapped in front by Bhargav Bhatt.A tiny wound had been inflicted on Knight Riders and Chawla prised it open. He bowled Bisla with a delivery that did not turn and meted out the same to Yusuf Pathan with a legbreak in the same over. After 14 overs, Knight Riders were 85 for 5. Chawla had pulled them back to exactly the position Kings XI had been in at that stage – 85 for 3. He struck again, with a googly to Shakib al Hasan, to have the Bangladesh all-rounder caught of his own bowling.Das defied the Kings XI charge. He started by smacking a full toss from Chawla for a straight six. As full deliveries were offered to him, he smoked them to the boundary. Ryan ten Doeschate provided some support and the pair took Knight Riders to within 13 runs of victory with two overs left.Praveen Kumar gave away only four of those runs, bowling an over punctuated with yorkers and Harmeet had nine runs to work with in the final over. His seemingly harmless legbreaks had ten Doeschate frustrated as he played on. Harmeet then proved impossible to get away as he made up for Kings XI’s lapses with the bat through cunning bowling.Kings XI saw off 36 dot balls in their innings and allowed Knight Riders’ attack to create pressure and use it to their advantage. Narine struck twice in his opening spell – when Adam Gilchrist top-edged and attempted pull to depart for 5 and by bowling Shaun Marsh with a delivery that turned away from the left-hander.Together with Kallis, he ensured Kings XI crawled to 31 for 2 after seven overs and that they did not score a single boundary in five of them. If not for the half-century stand between Mandeep Singh and David Hussey, they would have not got off the starting blocks at all.The pair settled in on the surface, started to time the ball better and occasionally challenged the fielders, beating them for boundaries and pushing them hard to turn singles into twos. Old-fashioned grit and grind helped them build but just as they were looking to launch, Mandeep slog swept straight to deep mid-wicket.They were never really able to push after that as Hussey was run-out soon after and the dominoes fell steadily after that. Bhatia took two wickets in his final over and Narine also struck twice on being brought back on the attack. Kings XI scored 30 runs off the last two overs which, in the end, proved to be the difference.