KKR vs Som: Somerset beat Knight Riders by 11 runs, both qualify for CLT20 main draw

HYDERABAD: The Kolkata Knight Riders seem to have made a habit of making life difficult for themselves. On Wednesday night against Somerset in their last qualifying match of the Champions Trophy at the RJIC Stadium, they almost missed the cut but lived to fight it out for another day.

After conceding 166, the Knight Riders knew that they needed to get at least 153 to get past Ruhunu XI as the third team.

But for the heroics of Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate, the Kolkata outfit would have packed their bags and left for home.

For the record, Somerset won by 11 runs, but both sides made the grade with the Knight Riders being Q1 and Somerset Q3.

Dashing Manvinder Bisla began with the chase with a flourish hitting Alfonso Thomas for a six, but was unfortunately run out in the next over and skipper JacquesK alliswas donein by left-arm spinner Murali Kartik in the same over to push the Knight Riders on to the back foot.

Manoj Tiwary chanced his arm a weebiton way to 27 off 23 balls (5x4) but the asking rate kept mounting. At 57 for four, things were not pretty rosy for Shah Rukh Khan's team, but ten Doeschate forged a 40-run partnership with Yusuf Pathan, who though was off colour.

The Baroda batsman seemed to have sustained a groin injury which impaired his movements. However, ten Doeschate made up for Pathan's inability with some big hits.

Electing to bat, Somerset began with a bang as Chris Jones and Peter Trego went after the Knight Riders. Though Jones (14) fell, Trego and Roelof van der Merwe carried on with the task of getting runs as quickly as possible. They race to 50 in 6.5 overs as both the batsmen cut loose.

The Knight Riders were, however, lucky to see der Merwe off when his powerful drive was snapped up by Kallis off left-arm seamer Jaidev Unadkat. His 40 came off just 25 balls with four fours and a six. His departure was no respite for the Knight Riders as Trego did not slow down the pace.

He found useful partners in James Hildreth (13) and Nick Compton (20; 10b, 2x4, 1x6) as Somerset ran up 166 in their 20 overs. Trego was run out on the last ball of the innings but he had done enough to put his team on top. His 70 came off 61 balls with nine hits to the fence.