Gautam Gambhir was at home at the Ferozeshah Kotla, the ground on which he honed his batting. The left-hander scored a sparkling half-century to lead Kolkata Knight Riders to an emphatic eight-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League here on Wednesday.
The win, which came after four successive defeats, should boost KKR’s confidence as well as its place on the points table.
Choosing to bat, DD put up 160 for five on the board and KKR rode on Gambhir and Robin Uthappa’s 106-run opening stand to achieve the target with 1.4 overs remaining.
A lot of credit must go to Uthappa, who scored a quick-fire 34-ball 47.
He hit four of his five fours and a six with a straight bat.
Aggressive batting Gambhir, dropped on 18 off Siddharth Kaul, displayed a positive body language and batted aggressively. He kept everyone engaged as he pummelled the DD bowlers for most of his boundaries in the ‘V’ and played the lofted shots to perfection too.
When Gambhir (69 off 56) left, KKR needed just 10 runs off 16 balls. The KKR opening pair literally took the match away from DD, which suffered its third consecutive loss on home turf.
Earlier, the combination of J-P. Duminy and Kedar Jadhav displayed their wonderful finishing skills before the Kotla crowd and provided a late push for DD.
DD’s top order could not make much of an impact. Quinton de Kock skied Umesh Yadav to Gautam Gambhir at mid-on and skipper Kevin Pietersen, after a brief struggle, fell to his poor judgment while attempting a run.
One thought Murali Vijay (24) and Dinesh Karthik (36) would revive the DD innings again, but the opener, who looked good playing some handsome shots, miscued Jacques Kallis to be caught by Sunil Narine at long on.
As the pitch played a little slow, Karthik worked the ball around nicely and exhibited his creativity to launch some brilliant hits. In one over of Kallis, Karthik hopped across and scooped the South African for a six and reached the boundary on both sides to showcase his range of strokes.
Shakib bowls well KKR’s Bangladeshi recruit Shakib al Hasan hindered DD’s progress by scalping Karthik in the 12th over.
With an enviable economy of 3.25, Shakib emerged as the most successful KKR bowler. KKR had managed to check DD’s scoring rate, but Duminy (40 n.o.) and Jadhav (26 n.o.) powered their way to 54 runs from the last four overs, including 17 from a Narine over.
Jadhav picked Vinay Kumar for special treatment, playing a well-timed four and a six, and scored two consecutive boundaries off Narine.
Duminy also enjoyed attacking Narine, hitting him flat to the KKR dugout and finishing with one over the West Indian’s head.
Scoreboard
Delhi Daredevils : Quinton de Kock c Gambhir b Umesh 10 (9b, 2x4), Murali Vijay c Narine b Kallis 24 (20b, 2x4, 1x6), Kevin Pietersen run out 6 (12b, 1x4), Dinesh Karthik c Kallis b Shakib 36 (22b, 4x4, 1x6), J-P. Duminy (not out) 40 (28b, 3x6), L.R. Shukla b Narine 10 (14b, 1x4), Kedar Jadhav (not out) 26 (15b, 3x4, 1x6); Extras (lb-6, w-2): 8; Total (for five wickets in 20 overs): 160.
Fall of wickets : 1-14 (de Kock), 2-26 (Pietersen), 3-61 (Vijay), 4-85 (Karthik), 5-105 (Shukla).
Kolkata Knight Riders bowling : Suryakumar Yadav 1-0-8-0, Jacques Kallis 4-0-38-1, Umesh Yadav 4-0-26-1, Shakib al Hasan 4-0-13-1, Sunil Narine 4-0-38-1, Vinay Kumar 3-0-31-0.
Kolkata Knight Riders : Robin Uthappa 47 (34b, 5x4, 1x6), Gautam Gambhir 69 (56b, 5x4, 2x6), Manish Pandey (not out) 23 (14b, 2x4), Jacques Kallis (not out) 10 (6b, 2x4); Extras (lb-11, w-1): 12; Total (for two wickets in 18.2 overs): 161.
Fall of wickets : 1-106 (Uthappa), 2-151 (Gambhir).
Delhi Daredevils bowling : Mohammad Shami 4-0-23-0, Wayne Parnell 4-0-21-2, L.R. Shukla 2-0-19-0, Siddharth Kaul 3-0-29-0, J-P. Duminy 2-0-24-0, Shahbaz Nadeem 3.2-0-34-0.
Man of the match : Gautam Gambhir.
KKR won by eight wickets with 1.4 overs to spare
