Kolkata: Sunil Narine's 4 for 13 followed by a fantastic knock of 42 runs off 29 balls by skipper Gautam Gambhir helped Kolkata Knight Riders beat Delhi Daredevils comprehensively by six wickets in the opening match of Indian Premier League at Eden Gardens here on Wednesday.
Chasing a target of 129 runs, KKR lost their first wicket quite cheaply. Ashish Nehra bowled a back of a length delivery which took Manvinder Bisla by surprise and he ended up giving the catch to the fielder. Bisla scored just four runs. But this wicket brought experienced Jacques Kallis on to the middle. Kallis, who has loads of experience playing under such pressure, started resurrecting the KKR innings with Gambhir and added 47 runs off 34 balls before being dismissed by Shahabaz Nadeem.
The fall of Kallis brought Manoj Tiwary on to the crease and the local boy played sensibly to guide the KKR's ship in the right direction along with his skipper. Both of them avoided taking much risk and dealt in ones and twos, picking up odd boundaries on the loose deliveries. And before Gambhir was trapped leg before by Johan Botha, the duo had added valuable 41 runs for the third wicket.
However in the very next over, Tiwary got carried away and went for a sweep shot but misjudged the pace of Nadeem's delivery. The ball kissed the bat and keeper Naman Ojha made no mistake in catching the ball. But duo of Yusuf Pathan and Eoin Morgan ensured that they won’t allow the further damage and they steered KKR to a comprehensive six-wicket victory.
Earlier, KKR had a brilliant start of the IPL-6 as their bowling spearhead, Brett Lee, struck on the very first delivery of the match and got Unmukt Chand clean bowled. Later Sunil Narine haunted the Daredevils with his mysterious bowling which nearly baffled the Delhi batsmen. He ended up with the figures of 4-13 and was the impact player of the day.
Though Delhi lost Chand on the very first ball, it didn't deter experienced Mahela Jayawardene and hard-hitter David Warner from playing the shots. They not only resurrected the Delhi innings but did it with great pace as the duo went on to add 44 runs in 34 balls before Narine sent off Warner back to the pavilion with a superb delivery.
Thereafter, the Daredevils lost the plot and lost wickets at regular intervals . Rajat Bhatia picked up the two quick wickets, including that of Naman Ojha and Johan Botha with his slow cutters. His spell of four overs was a good blend of cutters and slower ones which didn’t allow the batsmen to take an aerial route against his bowling.
Though captain Mahela Jayawardene, kept the fight on from the other end , he simply ran out of partners. Narine was the pick of the bowlers as he dismissed the Irfan Pathan and Andre Russell in the middle of the innings and stopped the flow of the runs.
In the last five overs, Jayawardene shifted his gears and started taking on the fast bowlers. Mahela who came in to the middle from the second ball of the innings stayed there till the 19th over and played some brilliant strokes in his very well architected innings of 66 runs in which he scored eight swashbuckling boundaries and one huge six. He departed when Delhi was at 125 runs. The last two batsmen added just three runs to the total.