May 1, 2011
Punjab's new found hero failed for the second consecutive time when he got out for a score of just 6 runs in the match against Kolkata. From the start itself Valthaty didn't look much comfortable on a wicket which was supporting the bowlers. His only four was also a close one and was centimeters away from safe hands of Jacques kallis, guarding the covers. The very next ball he got out handling Manoj Tiwary a simple catch standing on long-on.
It seemed that KXP never recovered from this and were able to score just 199/6 in the allotted 20 overs. Dinesh Karthik played a sensible innings scoring 42 off 42 balls with the track not supporting at all. But that was not enough for the Punjab team as a couple of good parterships of KKR got them through. Kolkata chased down the score in 17.2 overs handing Punjab a huge defeat by 8 wickets. Iqbal Abdulla was awarded the man of the match award for this 2-19. This low scoring match saw only 2 maximums & 24 4's
Punjab would now be facing the team in form Mumbai at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai on 2nd April. Valthaty's firing against such a strong side would go a long way in shutting up his critics. Also he would be eyeing the orange cap. He currently has scored 268(6 matches) runs, only behind RCB's Virat Kohli 294(7), DD's Sehwag 288(8) & MI's Sachin Tendulkar 276(7).
