Bowlers set up victory for Kolkata

Kolkata Knight Riders' bowlers made best use of a sluggish pitch after a rain-delayed start, keeping Chennai Super Kings to 114, and their batsmen did enough to be ahead of the par score when rain returned to cut the match short. Both captains thought the weather would have little impact on the pitch and identified it as a good batting strip, but were proved wrong.

On a slow, low wicket that didn't allow the ball to come on, Brett Lee and Iqbal Abdulla exploited the conditions perfectly. It was only S Badrinath's carefully crafted half-century that held the Chennai innings together. Both Lee and Abdulla bowled tight lines, with Lee using the slower ball well, and didn't give the batsmen room to break away.

Lee bowled a three-over spell up front, instead of the usual two, and while he pulled the noose at one end, another wicket fell at the other. Pressure built and M Vijay succumbed. Abdulla saw him charging down the track, dropped one short and was offered an easy caught-and-bowled.

Yusuf Pathan, who didn't allow any release, took the pace off the ball and had Suresh Raina caught at midwicket. Rajat Bhatia also permitted no let-up and after nine overs, Chennai had not scored a single boundary.

The first one came in the 10th over, off Yusuf, when Badrinath had had enough, and smacked it low and flat over long-on. Michael Hussey had stayed with Badrinath through the tough patch but his labour ended in the next over when he was offered a short ball by L Balaji and pulled it straight to Eoin Morgan at midwicket.

Albie Morkel was promoted to number five and gave himself some time to get in and the Kolkata bowlers maintained the stranglehold. After eight balls, he had the opportunity to sink his teeth into Jaidev Unadkat, who was only brought on in the 15th over. The pace bowler seemed to misread the pitch and bowled too quick, getting dispatched for consecutive fours before he pulled it back with some slower balls. Morkel was dropped in the same over by Lee, trying to launch Unadkat over the leg-side.

While Morkel was attempting to hit big shots and even appeared to get an edge in Lee's final over but was not given out, Badrinath was sculpting his half-century. He became more comfortable after he had got in and picked the balls to hit. Morkel had more of the strike in the last two overs but only one of his many swings got to the boundary.

It wasn't easy for Kolkata to chase, especially with R Ashwin making use of some turn. He bowled Eoin Morgan in the second over and also got the important wicket of Gautam Gambhir, although the fielder deserved more credit for the second. Gambhir had danced down the track and sliced the ball in the air towards extra cover. Suraj Randiv ran from point to take a tough diving catch.

Jacques Kallis was the immovable rock for Kolkata. He coped well, given the conditions and struck two classic boundaries. Along with Manoj Tiwary, Kallis looked comfortable enough to see Kolkata through and had the rain not come down, he probably would have. Nevertheless, he had done enough to put Kolkata firmly in front when play ended.