Knights win on bad Eden pitch

Poor lights, umpiring errors and a substandard pitch contrived to subdue a spirited fight by the Deccan Chargers in their opening IPL match against the Kolkata Knight Riders at an erratic Eden Gardens here on Sunday.

After being bowled out for 110, the Hyderabad team had done well to have the Knights on their knees at 89/5 in the 17th over when two of the four light towers shut down suddenly.

The half-hour break provided the home team time to recover and regroup before they went on to the field needing 22 runs from 20 balls while the Chargers had to go through the drills and expend extra energy to warm up and take to the ground.

Man of the match David Hussey admitted it was a welcome break. “It was a decent break for us, giving us time to collect our thoughts and have a drink to get back our energy. It worked very well for us,” he said. Chargers captain V.V.S. Laxman rued the interruption. “It definitely affected us because we had the momentum going when the lights shut down,” he said.

Laxman also called the wicket “shocking.” “This was not a wicket for any format of the game, leave alone Twenty20 cricket,” he said.

Recalling his last three matches on this ground, the middle-order batsman said: “The wicket has been slow in the Ranji Trophy and a Test match I have played here in the last six months. Now this game. This is not what we expect at the Eden.” Hussey concurred with the view. “It was not an ideal wicket, possibly underprepared,” he said.

Rival captains Laxman and Sourav Ganguly getting hit because of awkward bounce while batting was testi mony to the poor pitch.

That’s not all. The Eden authorities were also responsible for the lights goof-up.. The CESC, which supplies power to most of Kolkata, said in a statement: “The light failure is not because of our fault, but an internal error at Eden Gardens. We are in no way responsible.” The third factor that hobbled the Chargers was an umpiring mistake by Billy Bowden. He turned down a full throated lbw appeal against Sourav Ganguly while television replays showed the ball would have crashed right into his stumps..

The Kolkata captain was on one and his team 16/2 in the third over then.

The let off proved vital as the former Indian captain went on to add 47 crucial runs in the company of David Hussey for the fourth wicket before being bowled by left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha.

• Deccan  Chargers           http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/deccan_chargers
• Kolkata Knight Riders   http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/Kolkata_Knight_Riders
• Kings XI Punjab              http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/KingsXI_Punjab
• Rajastan Royals             http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Rajasthan_Royals