Kolkata Knight Riders have started off their campaign really well and are looking solid to defend their title. In their first match of the season, they outplayed Delhi Daredevils in every department and registered an easy six-wicket win . KKR started off well as their leading pace bowler Brett Lee bowled a beauty of a delivery to get the Unmukt Chand out on the very first ball and after that it was all Knight Riders show as they kept their dominance throughout the match.
Here we bring to you the hits and flops of the opening affair of the IPL season 6:
HITS
Mahela Jayawardene: Mahela played a brilliant knock of 66 runs which took his team to somewhat respectable total of 128. He came in to bat in the first over of the innings and started off really well with the flurry of boundaries but his other teammates failed to apply themselves which resulted in a batting collapse. He played the role of sheath-anchor really well and kept the price on his wicket. He got out after making 66 which was studded with eight fours and one six.
Sunil Narine: The 'Mystery Bowler' continued to haunt the Delhi Daredevils batsmen. Sunil bowled some brilliant deliveries to bamboozle the Delhi middle order. He got his first wicket in David Warner who was looking quite dangerous but he got deceived by the Jamaican spinner who bowled a straighter one to him and he got caught at slips. Narine ended with the figures of 4-13 in his quota of four overs.
Shahbhaz Nadeem: Nadeem got a couple of wickets, though they came late but it was good enough to keep the match in balance in the last four overs. He picked up the crucial wickets of Jacques Kallis and Manoj Tiwary. Both these batsmen were looking good till the time Nadeem sent them back to the pavilion.Nadeem ended up with the figures of 2-22.
Rajat Bhatia: Rajat Bhatia bowled some very good slow deliveries which earned him couple of wickets. He kept the one end tight and kept the pressure on Delhi Daredevils batsmen. He ended up with the figures of 2-23 by picking up the wickets of Naman Ojha and Johan Botha.
Gautam Gambhir: Captain of KKR led from the front and played an impressive knock of 42 runs. He rotated his bowlers very well while fielding. His captaincy was something that made a significant difference between the two sides. The biggest positive that he will take from this match is his batting form. He smashed five fours and one six before he was dismissed by Johan Botha.
Jacques Kallis: Jacques Kallis played a critical knock of 23 runs. His presence in middle didn’t last too long but he gave that momentum to KKR’s innings which they were looking for. He scored 23 runs in just 20 balls and played five exquisite boundaries.
FLOPS
Umesh Yadav: Yadav didn’t bowl well in his first appearance of this season and ended up with the figures of 0-23 in three overs. Bowler of his calibre could have done way much better than what he did on Wednesday. His recent form in domestic T20 matches was really impressive but he was off-colour against KKR. Even while fielding, he was slipping quite often which should not have happened at this level. Mahela Jayawardane didn’t use him properly and that was one of the reasons why he went for those runs.
Irfan Pathan: Irfan didn’t rise to the expectation of his fans and displayed some poor bowling and batting skills. Having some good experience in International cricket, a better application was very much required from him which was completely missing. To make his day worse, his fielding was also not up to the mark.
Andre Russell: Russell failed to impress in his first fixture of this season. Neither he batted well nor he bowled as his team wanted him to. He put on a flop show to make things go from bad to worse for Delhi. After this performance, chances are quite high that Ajit Agarkar might replace him in the next match because of his excellent domestic record in the last Ranji season.
Unmukt Chand: Unmukt had a worst possible start of this season. He was bowled on a very first delivery of the match by Brett Lee. Lee bowled an exceptional delivery to get the batsman out. Chand was clueless against the pace and swing of Brett Lee. This failure has also raised the question that whether Unmukt is good enough for opening or not. If he is not good for opening, then better use him in the lower middle order, where he can play his aggressive game much freely.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network