Shah Stars as Deccan Slump

Kolkata caused an upset on the opening night of the new IPL season with an 11-run victory over the Deccan Chargers.

Unbeaten half-centuries from Owais Shah and Angelo Mathews helped the Knight Riders, who finished bottom of the table in 2009, recover from a disastrous start to post a more-than-useful 161-4.

Deccan - the reigning champions heading into the third year of the competition - looked well placed in their run chase at 99-1.

However, Adam Gilchrist's departure for 54 led to a batting collapse and they eventually finished up on 150-7 at the end of their 20 overs.
Early blows

The Chargers will wonder just how they contrived to lose a game that they always seemed in control of from the moment Chaminda Vaas struck two early blows in the opening over.

Manoj Tiwary was dismissed with the very first delivery of the 2010 campaign and Kolkata captain Sourav Ganguly didn't last much longer, going for a three-ball duck, to leave the score on 0-2.

Cheteshwar Puraja (10) became the third wicket to fall and when Brad Hodge cut Jaskaran Singh to short point to depart for 13, the Knight Riders were reeling at 31-4.

But Shah and Mathew combined to rebuild the innings with an unbroken stand of 130, of which 104 came from the final 10 overs.

Discarded by England, Shah began cautiously before unleashing some big shots, hitting three sixes and the same number of fours in his 58 not out.

Mathews ended up unbeaten on 65 from just 46 balls, the Sri Lankan all-rounder clobbering five fours and four sixes - his first maximum coming from the opening ball of his knock.

Collapse

The duo's efforts looked set to be in a losing cause, though, even when VVS Laxman departed for 22 due to a mis-timed slog-sweep off of Murali Karthik.

However, the pivotal moment of the game came at the start of the 12th over when Gilchrist, who had raced to his half-century, was caught on the fence trying to hit fellow Australian Hodge over square leg for his fourth six.

From then on the Chargers crumbled under the pressure, Herschelle Gibbs hitting Charl Langeveldt straight out to long-off to depart for 19.

Ishant Sharma then dismissed the dangerous Andrew Symonds (five) before returning to seal victory for his side with a tight last over. Deccan ended up 11 runs short having lost six wickets for 43 runs.