Kolkata Knight Riders rode on a brilliant innings by skipper Gautam Gambhir to dismiss Delhi Daredevils by 6 wickets on Monday.
Chasing down the 147 set by Delhi Daredevils to win, Kolkata Knight Riders opened with Gambhir and Robin Uthappa, who briskly took the score to 31/0 in 4 overs, but in one over, the Delhi side swung the match around, claiming Uthappa for 13 and Manish Pandey for 0, Muthuswami plotting it for the Daredevils.
Gambhir and Yadav came together, but the latter fell to Coulter-Nile for 24, taking the score to 79/3, 68 required from 60 deliveries. Yusuf Pathan was the new man in and in 15 overs, the Kolkata team managed to get to 119/3, requiring 28 from 30 balls. As Gambhir brought up his half century, Pathan began to take a liking to the bowling attack, smashing all around the park. Gambhir (60), who was dismissed by Tahir and Pathan (40) steered the team to to seal a win over the Delhi Daredevils.
Earlier, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and elected to field first. Opening the innings for the Delhi outfit were Agarwal and Iyer and the opening partnership was broken in the second over, when Mayank Agarwal was taken by Morkel for 1, bringing Duminy into the mix.
Duminy tried his hand at crafting the bigger ones, but fell doing so, removed by Narine for 5. At the end of 5 overs, the score was 26/2. Mayank Tiwari was the new man in and even though he held the battle from one end, Iyer couldn’t survive the sharp bowling by the Kolkata side, perishing at the hands of Chawla for 31.
Tiwari and Yuvraj Singh got together and the score, at the end of 10 overs was The duo never deterred from being cautious, but despite that, Tiwari was removed by Morkel for 32, and Yuvraj fell in quick succession to Chawla for 21. At the end of the 15th over, the Delhi side looked in deep trouble, the scoreboard crawling to 105/3.
Jadhav and Mathews got together, but that partnership didn’t blossom either, Jadhav being packed off for 12 by Yadav. Mathews brought about a late onslaught, even as Coulter-Nile run out 2 and Mathews perished for a well-made 28. At the end of 20 overs, the score was 146/8.