Another wonderful yorker to end with. Tharanga can only dig it out, and turn away from the mess.
Knights vs Chargers, 4th Match at Lauderhill, UST10, Aug 19 2023 - Ball by Ball Commentary
The rain is here as expected. So we'll leave it there for now, as the second match of the day gets underway. Thanks for joining Sudeep Poojar and me. See you another time.
Milind Kumar: "Batting with a legend [Kallis] is always a pleasant moment for me. Waiting for it for years and years and I have it now."
Suresh Raina: "We have lot of options [with the ball], and in this format you need to bowl dot balls [which we did]."
Milind Kumar is the Player of the Match for his 76* in 28 balls.
Ben Dunk: "Good first hit-out for some of the guys, who haven't played a lot of cricket of late. We have to bounce back quickly. We fought till the end and have to bounce back tomorrow. Bowl a little bit better, bat a little bit better, field a little bit better."
That's the game. California Knights win by 48 runs. Big win for Knights, which will help their NRR a fair bit if it comes down to it later in the tournament. We have some scary-looking clouds coming in now, but at least the first game of the day is done and dusted. Raina had said at the toss that he wanted to put up some runs on the board and was confident he had the bowling to defend it. And that's exactly what happened. Though, really, he might not have expected that many runs.
My Player of the Match would be Ashley Nurse, whose 3 for 12 was immense. But can't really look beyond Milind Kumar and Jacques Kallis, can we? They put the game beyond Texas Chargers. One of them then?
This is swinging down leg. Tharanga doesn't get any bat on it, but it goes off his pads past short fine-leg for four.
Run out. We've seen Raina do it so often in the blue of India and the yellow of CSK. Edwards drives this over-pitched ball to cover, doesn't make much of an effort with his running, and Raina hits with - what? - one and a half stumps to aim at.
Inswinging yorker there, and Tharanga attempts a biggie but only gets an inside edge on to his legs, which rolls to short third
Length, at the stumps, and Edwards gave it all his muscle. But it only goes down to long-on.
Wicket! Length. Homing in on leg stump. Gul makes room for the ball to go through as he misses with his swing.
Suyal has the ball. They need 55 from the last over.
Misses with the yorker and it becomes a half-volley, which Tharanga hits over mid-off for one more four.
Yorker again, but it's not pinpoint, so Tharanga gets it down to mid-off. Ooh, misunderstanding. Tharanga is sent back. And that might have been out if it had been a direct hit from Nurse.
Swinging yorker, and it's a good one. Tharanga gets enough of an inside edge to get it past the stumps and past the keeper and it rolls away to the fine-leg boundary
Yorker, Tharanga unable to get anything much behind the ball. It rolls away to point.
Pitched up outside off, and Gul only gets an inside edge to that and sends it to short fine-leg. Might have taken it a bit easy there with the running, but the throw misses.
Very, very slow. Length. Gul waits, and then swings, and misses.
Batting powerplay. Santokie has the ball
That's an attempted yorker that goes very wrong, and ends up as a high full toss. Tharanga connects well with his swinging bat and sends it down the ground
Another pull, with no power. That slower delivery is played down to deep midwicket
Short outside off to Gul, and Gul cuts it over point, and that should just have been a single, but Powell makes a hash of that spinning ball and let's it go over the rope.
Nicely done from Suyal. He gets this yorker to swing into Tharanga, who can only dig it out to deep midwicket
Shorter, quicker. Gul swings his bat feebly, and almost chops on. But they get a single before the keeper gets to the ball.
Pitched up and swinging down leg side. But catches Tharanga's leg as he misses with a big swing, and it rolls down to short fine leg
Pawan Suyal gets a bowl, left-arm over
And Gul responds to this straight delivery on off stump with the perfect forward defensive shot.
Umar Gul replaces one-time team-mate Tanvir
That's out! A nothing ball, but was straight at the stumps, and Tanvir's attempted slog sweep missed altogether. Looked quite out, though Tanvir didn't think so. Yup, would have hit leg stump.