da bet sport： Plays of the day for the IPL match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Bangalore Royal Challengers
Cricinfo staff08-May-2008
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The 12th man is Numero Uno: On Wednesday night, almost all theMumbai Indians replica shirts at the DY Patil Stadium in Nerul had theNo. 10 and Tendulkar printed on the back. So when you arrived at theEden Gardens on Thursday, the expectation was that Ganguly would be thename of choice on the black-and-gold jerseys. Not quite. The Gangulyshirts were conspicuously absent, with the Number 12 ‘Khan’ shirt theattire of choice. That should tell you all you need to know about the newbreed of Indian ‘cricket’ fan.Where the mind is without fear: Right from the moment you land inKolkata, everything from the radio to posters on the walls inform you thatMay 8 is Rabindranath Tagore’s 148th birth anniversary. The first Indianto be awarded the Nobel prize (1913), Tagore would probably beat offcompetition from Satyajit Ray, Chuni Goswami and Ganguly if Bengal wasever to choose its favourite son. And with the rain pouring down, ShahRukh Khan, he of the No.12 shirt, paid tribute by reciting , one of Tagore’s mostfamous works. His team followed that message when they came out to field.Not the Mystic Masseur: As the Kolkata openers prepare toface the first ball after an interminable rain delay, the camera pansacross to Shoaib Akhtar in the dug-out. Not fit enough to play this game,Shoaib makes himself useful by giving one of his new team-mates a shouldermassage. A man of many talents.Double jeopardy: Murali Kartik played a vital role in reviving theKolkata innings, but when he could only scoop out a yorker from PraveenKumar, no one was quite sure if it was a bump catch or not. WriddhimanSaha was already halfway down the pitch, and Praveen, who had taken the catchon his follow-through made doubly sure by taking the bails off long beforeKartik had ambled across. The scorer initially said run out, but replayslater proved that it was a clean catch.Anything you can do: Cameron White had come up with a stunningdirect hit on the dive to dismiss Ganguly, but then had to watch histhunder stolen by a compatriot. When J Arunkumar cut one hard to point,Hodge flung himself to the left to gather the ball in. In almost the samemovement, he switched the ball to the right hand and produced a throw thattook out the only stump he could see. Arunkumar departed in a state ofshock, and you could scarcely blame him.O Captain, My Captain: With Rahul Dravid struggling to get the ballaway, Ganguly brought himself on to bowl to the man who replaced him asIndia’s captain. Dravid decided to go for the paddle-sweep off thefirst ball, but the result was anything but pretty. The exposed leg stumpwas uprooted and Ganguly ran off towards point in celebration, leavingBangalore supporters to reflect on the first line of Walt Whitman’sfamous poem about Abraham Lincoln. .