Page 221 - IPL1

By happy coincidence, White was one of the Bangalore fielders
who spent much of the evening craning his neck to catch sight
of one six after another being launched into the night sky.

But Kolkata’s problem was that McCullum was available for four
matches only before jetting off to England to join up with his
fellow New Zealand tourists, and – after winning their first two
matches – the franchise struggled to make good his absence.
Ganguly did his best to lead by example in taking the battle
to the opposition and his swashbuckling style appeared to
be well-suited to the Twenty20 format. But his fans were only

treated to three innings of any substance, just one of which –
a breathtaking 86 not out off 53 balls in the final group game
against Kings XI Punjab – was at Eden Gardens.

Even so, Ganguly ended up as his side’s leading runscorer, with
349 at an average of 29 and a strike-rate of 113, and he was never
less than wholehearted in his efforts to win games for his side.
Once McCullum had left the country, support came mainly from
the Australian batsmen David Hussey, who had surprised some
by fetching more at auction than his more celebrated older
brother Michael had attracted from the Chennai Super Kings. A
tally of 319 runs suggested the money was not entirely wasted.

Ponting never got going after playing second fiddle to McCullum
on that balmy opening night in Bangalore when he scored a
barely noticed 20. He was dismissed for a duck in both the next
two games, against Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings,
and signed off with an innings of 19 in the defeat to Mumbai
Indians. It was one of the few barren patches of a glittering
career. His unexpected struggles placed pressure on the likes of
Mohammad Hafeez, the Pakistani middle-order batsman, and
the Indian Laxmi Shukla, but Hafeez managed just 64 runs in
eight innings and although Shukla fared slightly better, scoring
163 runs in 12 knocks, four of them unbeaten, there were still
insufficient runs coming from the middle order to sustain
Kolkata’s challenge for a semi-final spot.

As a result Ganguly was often left hoping his bowlers could

provide a miracle, but it wasn’t to be. Sharma began in
stupendous form, bowling six overs for just 16 runs as Kolkata

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