Kolkata Knight Riders Win 2012 IPL

By Parvez Fatteh, Founder of http://sportingummah.com, sports@muslimobserver.com

Ishant Sharma of the Kolkata Knight Riders celebrates during a game.

The Kolkata Knight Riders recorded their first ever Indian Premier League cricket title as they defeated defending champions, Chennai Super Kings. KKR won by five wickets, after CSK had posted a daunting score of 190 runs in the first innings.

Bangladeshi Shakib Al Hassan tossed 3 overs for Kolkata, giving up 25 runs, and bagging 1 wicket. Iqbal Abdulla bowled 1 over, giving up only 9 runs. Yusuf Pathan also bowled 1 over for KKR, giving up 17 runs.

Pakistani Wasim Akram is the bowling coach for KKR, and he was quite proud of his bowling staff.  “My bowlers are the best in the world and we can beat any team with this bowling attack. The variety and the wicket-taking ability are incredible. It’s good to be a part of this team,” he was quoted as saying by iplt20.com.

Akram makes no bones talking about the fact that the change in leadership has resulted in change of fortunes for the team. “The leadership, the contribution from senior and the foreign players was the key. We’re a family, not a team. We supported each other through thick and thin, and that helped.”

“It was incredible. Credit goes to the captain and his team on the way they have fought throughout the tournament. My voice is gone and I am feeling the same when I did after winning the World Cup for Pakistan. It was worth the wait,” Akram concluded.

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