One day before the game, Kolkata Knight Riders’ coach Trevor Baylis was asked about the soundness of investing again in Jacques Kallis at this year’s auction. Great player sure, but was he really cut out for Twenty20? And was he really worth all the money they had paid to retain him?
“He is a great cricketer,” responded Baylis. “Lot of these players, when people think they are down and out, that is exactly when something clicks in their mind and they go and show it. If anyone wants to write Jacques off, then do it at your own peril.”
Had he not even bothered to answer the question, the answer should have been obvious. And it was given a resounding coda on the opening night of season seven of the Indian Premier League (IPL), as Kallis’ 72 led Kolkata to an equally resounding 41-run win over the defending champions Mumbai Indians at the Zayed stadium in Abu Dhabi.
In fairness, for long periods of the innings Kallis did little to shrug off any suspicions, letting Manish Pandey push the scoring. After 13 overs in fact, Kallis had barely been seen. He had faced just 30 balls and was on 34, with just two fours. He was dropped badly by Lasith Malinga in the 14th over when on 35 and he took full toll.
He took 19 runs from the next over, off the hitherto miserly Pragyan Ojha including two monstrous sixes. Two more boundaries from the very next over maintained a late burst and added a new tinge to his partnership with Pandey.
When Pandey fell for an accomplished 64, bowled by Malinga, the pair had added 131 and changed the face of an innings that had begun in a stupor. Kallis eventually became Malinga’s fourth victim, but he had instigated a blitz of 73 runs from the last six overs.
“There was never any debate about Jacques as far as we’re concerned,” his skipper Gautam Gambhir said. “We always had one thing in mind, a quality player is a quality player no matter what format. All of our foriegn players have been good across all formats. There was never any question for us about his strike rate. One of us had to bat towards a team total and he did that.”
Mumbai may have fancied the chase, given that they had lost just two of their 12 IPL games against Kolkata before this. But with Sunil Narine in opposition, it was imperative they began with a blitz of their own. They did not.
Tight opening spells from Vinay Kumar and Morne Morkel put Aditya Tare and Mike Hussey on the backfoot. When Narine did come on, in the fifth, Kolkata’s leading wicket-taker found immediate reward: Hussey was undone beautifully by one that turned in and skidded right through him.
Thereafter Kolkata kept a tight leash on proceedings. Ambati Rayudu and Rohit Sharma kept the semblance of a chase alive, but only in theory. Sharma fell to a wonderful Kallis catch at deep midwicket and every time Narine came on, a wicket seemed inevitable and so it was.
He scythed through their middle order, picking up three more wickets at the death to ensure a comfortable win. “We left our run a little late at the end,” said John Wright. “But credit should go to opposition. They have a pretty decent looking bowling attack. It’s not the best start but we’ll look forward. It’s important to keep very level and positive because it’s a long competition and we’ll be there at the end.”
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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