The Kolkata Knight Riders survived an exciting opener to their CL T20 campaign as they edged to a two-run win against the Auckland Aces in the second qualifier. The New Zealand champions fell painfully short of an upset when, with four needed from the final ball, Kyle Mills could only squirt a Brett Lee yorker away for a single. The Knight Riders expensively-assembled batting order managed only 121 for six batting first, but the Aces failed to capitalize on that with Lou Vincent's 37-ball 40 the only important contribution to the chase.Vincent had looked set to happily guide his side to victory, hitting 30 of his 40 runs in boundaries, but after he was run out Yusuf Pathan claimed two wickets in three balls to bring his side back into the match. But the New Zealand side failed to find the ropes again, to suffer a defeat which leaves them needing to win their second and final qualifier against Somerset on Tuesday to have any chance of reaching the group stage.
Earlier, the Knight Riders had looked on route for a better score than they managed after openers Manvinder Bisla and Kallis shared 73 in 57 balls. But after Bisla fell for a blustery 45 from 32 balls the IPL side lost their way with four wickets going down for the addition of five runs in 10 balls. A direct hit from Hampshire's Jimmy Adams then ran out Ryan ten Doeschate and when some more good fielding, this time from namesake Andre, caught Shakib Al Hasan backing up too far the Knight Riders had to be happy with a below-par score.
Today’s Matches:
Match 1: Leicestershire v Trinidad & Tobago
Match 2: Auckland v Somerset
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