Headlines
Knights conquer Daredevils by six wickets
New Delhi, April 21
Skipper Gautam Gambhir led from the front with a responsible half
century, as Kolkata Knight Riders outsmarted Delhi Daredevils by six
wickets in an Indian Premier League match here on Monday.
Delhi
boy Gambhir (60; 49b, 8x4) mixed aggression with caution to hold the
innings together and set up the victory for the title holders, who
reached 147 for four with 11 balls to spare in reply to a modest 146 for
8 posted by the Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Romping home
to their third win in four matches, the Knights now move up to the
third spot. A rung below are the Daredevils with two victories in five
outings.
After a cautious start, Gambhir executed some classy
shots all around the park, but at the same time rotated the strike with
well-run singles through measured nudges and pushes.
Gambhir was
involved in a 31-run stand with opener Robin Uthappa (13) before the
wicketkeeper-batsman and Manish Pandey (0) fell to pacer Domnic
Muthuswami (two for 18) in the fifth over.
Suryakumar Yadav (24)
and Gambhir brought the chase back on track with a 48-run partnership,
as Kolkata Knight Riders reached 79/2 at the halfway stage.
Yadav
departed immediately after, but Yusuf Pathan (40 not out; 26b, 6x4,
1x6) teamed up with Gambhir to nip in the bud whatever hopes Delhi had
nurtured of making a match of it.
The duo added 65 runs off only 47 balls, and separated only when the visitors were three short of victory.
Gambhir tried to cut Imran Tahir, and ended up inside edging on to his leg stump.
Ryan ten Doeschate (3 not out) picked up the winning runs by working the ball to deep backward square leg.
Earlier, put in to bat, Delhi Daredevils batsmen failed to convert good
starts into big knocks as the Knights' bowlers came up with a good
show.
The home side lost opener Mayank Agarwal (1) and one down
batsman J P Duminy (5) cheaply, before the other opener Shreyas Iyer
(31; 24b, 3x4, 6x1) and Manoj Tiwary (32; 28b, 54) steadied the ship
with a 36-run partnerhip. But just when it seemed Iyer was shaping up
for a big score, he was foxed by a straight one from leg spinner Piyush
Chawla.
The next wicket stand between Tiwary and Yuvraj Singh
also looked promising, even though there was never any free flow of
runs, as the hosts reached 69 for 3 at the halfway stage.
But
after the duo had put on 37 runs, Tiwary failed to negotiate a short
ball from Morne Morkel and ended up giving an easy catch to short mid
wicket.
Delhi were 95 for four in the 14th over.
Yuvraj
Singh (21) departed soon after and Delhi added 43 runs in the last five
overs, with Knight bowler Sunil Narine leaking 12 and 20 runs in the
17th and 19th over of the innings.
Man of the match Umesh Yadav,
who had gone wicketless till then, got double success in the last over,
giving away only three runs. He finished with impressive figures of 2
for 18. Piyush Chawla (2 for 27) and Morne Morkel (2 for 30) were the
other successful bowlers.