Kolkata Knight Riders Qualify for CLT20 2011 Despite Losing to Somerset; Pip Ruhunu by Small Margin

In a tense match, the Somerset Sabres prevailed but the Kolkata Knight Riders held their nerve to ensure that they met the qualification requirements to pip the spirited Ruhunu Eleven earlier in the day in the Champions League Twenty20 2011 qualifier tournament.

Peter Trego

Ruhunu Eleven played beyond expectations to beat the Leicestershire Foxes earlier in the day to give themselves an outside chance of joining the Trinidad and Tobago team in qualifying for the main draw of the Champions League Twenty20 2011. However, it was going to come down to the issue of the run rate as also the final match of the Champions League Twenty20 2011 qualifier tournament between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Somerset Sabres.

As it turned out, the fourth IPL team went through as did the team from England but not before the match was hard fought in terms of runs even if the fielding, particularly on the part of the Kolkata Knight Riders left a lot to be desired.

It was disappointing from the perspective that while the Sri Lankan team, Ruhunu Eleven, picked up their game and surprised quite a few people in the manner in which they stayed strong despite their fumbling moments to keep the Leicestershire Foxes at bay. It was not an easy match and Ruhunu did not show much in the first match to inspire confidence. However, while they could not beat Liecestershire by a big score, they will rue that they could not score a few more runs or save a few more runs because it could have made the world of difference on whether Kolkata Knight Riders could qualify or not.

Trego certainly made life hard on the Kolkata Knight Riders, scoring seventy of Sabres’ 166 runs to make sure the Kolkata Knight Riders were chasing down a stiff target in order to pip Ruhunu who missed because their run rate was -.28 to KKR’s -.23. Eventually Sabres won the match which took them to the top of the table in their group and therefore, automatically selected for the Champions League Twenty20 2011. That Kolkata Knight Riders managed to get as close to the target meant that they had reached their first immediate target for qualification and thereby, ensure that there would be four IPL teams in the Champions League Twenty20 2011.

In the end, perhaps the Sabres were keen on winning and deserved to given that even the KKR captain, Jacques Kallis, admitted he was very disappointed by the Kolkata Knight Riders’ performance and rightly so because KKR failed to find the right lengths, fielded pathetically and set themselves a tough target to overcome in order to qualify not made easy by Peter Treggo who certainly brought the proceedings to life. That KKR got as far as they did is rather creditable because not many would have given them a chance to qualify given their performance in the first half of the match. The KKR franchisee though will not mind which way their team has snuck into the Champions League Twenty20 2011 and snuck in they did as heartbroken Ruhunu Eleven will head back to Sri Lanka despite having come perilously close to closing out the KKR with their performance against the Leicestershire Foxes. Although KKR lost by eleven runs, they will feel they got more than their money’s worth with Ryan ten Doeschate’s forty-four runs that he could not have timed greater to perfection to the delight of KKR.