Shoaib Akthar destroyed the Daredevils with a battering ram of a spell taking 4-11. Shoaib Akthar accounted for Sehwag , Gambhir, De villiers and Tiwari in his opening spell to help the Knight Riders defend a paltry 136. Shoaib Akthar was declared man of the match. L R Shukla also joined the party taking 3 wickets.
Kolkata won the toss and elected to bat with Akash Chopra and Salman Butt opening the batting. The Knight Riders were off to a cautious start with Butt being the more aggressive of the two openers.
After the slow start the Knight Riders found themselves in further trouble losing the wickets of Sourav and Chopra, stuttering at 48-2 after 7 overs. After which the process rebuilding was taken on by Kolkata's Mr. Dependable, David Hussey, and Butt.
Just as things were beginning to look good, Butt lost his wicket trying to push the tempo. They were at 91-3, which was followed by a miniature batting collapse brought about by some good tight bowling by the Daredevil bowlers like Maharoof, Sangwan & Mishra.
Hussey stood tall amidst the carnage giving the Knight Riders' total a measure of respectability by reaching 133-6.
Delhi, starting with Sehwag and Gambhir, must have been supremely confident of wrapping the match up. But the Rawalpindi Express, Shoaib Akthar, had other ideas, opening the bowling for the Knight Riders. Shoaib Akthar was breathing fire from ball one, bowling at 150 kmph.
Shoaib Akthar blitzed through the top order, accounting for Sehwag , Gambhir, De villiers and Tiwari with some good old-fashioned fast bowling. Delhi was reeling at 28-4, attempts for revival brushed aside as Delhi kept losing wickets at regular intervals owing to some tight bowling and fielding by Kolkata. Delhi found itself at 73-6.
Maharoof and Mishra staged a mini comeback, only to be nipped at the bud by a brilliant piece of fielding by Dinda to run Maharoof out. This was followed by a remarkable over by L R Shukla in which he took 3 wickets in 5 balls. Delhi was all out for 110.
With this victory the Knight Riders are back in the hunt for a semi-final berth. Delhi seems to be losing form just when it matters. Will they make it ?? only time will tell.
1 comment:
despite what critics of the IPL say, it's a good thing... families gather around, grumpy fathers can vent their varied irritable emotions on the dissatisfying batsmen, kids get a thrill out of seeing someone else's rear end getting whooped by dad, and mom ensures that the unusually stationary(and slightly distracted) family food have second helpings of everything during dinner...!
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