Raipur: Raipur seems to have brought freshness in the spirits of Delhi Daredevils who put up another brilliant performance by registering a comfortable victory over Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets and 13 balls to spare here on Wednesday.
It was David Warner who played another sensational innings off 66 runs and had a partnership of 95 runs with Unmukt Chand. Unmukt scored 37 runs and played some brilliant strokes to prove his mettle. Delhi Daredevils outplayed Kolkata Knight Riders in every department right from the bowling and fielding to batting and running between the wickets.
Earlier it was some terrific bowling by the trio of Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav and Shahbaz Nadeem that restricted the KKR to a total of 136.
Chasing the target of 136 was not an easy task on the pitch that was not easy to bat on. Virender Sehwag and Mahela Jayawardene started off well and added 23 runs to the total but after that DD lost both their openers and were reduced to 27 for two wickets in 4.1 overs. But David Warner and Unmukt Chand resurrected the Delhi innings.
Warner and Chand did well to increase the scoring rate and were looking good as they kept on taking the singles in mid-overs to keep the score board ticking. But from the 11th over game tilted in DD’s favour as they kept scoring atleast one boundary in every over to keep the run-rate in check and by 15th over they were at 100/2. With just 35 runs needed in last five overs and Warner at the crease it was an easy game for Daredevils thereafter. Warner scored 26 runs in next two overs and sealed the game as they took the comprehensive win over defending champions. Warner ended up scoring 66 runs whereas Unmukt contributed 37 runs with the bat.
Earlier, it was some brilliant performance from Irfan Pathan who got Gautam Gambhir run-out. Manvinder Bisla was bowled out for 12 runs and it was Umesh Yadav who pitched the ball up to get this important breakthrough.
Irfan continued his stint in the field and took a catch of Yusuf Pathan who departed after scoring 20 runs. Eoin Morgan came to the middle but got out after scoring 10 runs as he pulled the ball straight into the hands of Yadav. Irfan picked up the wicket of Jacques Kallis and it was more a a Ben Rohrer's wicket as he took that superb one-handed stunner with a full stretch at point region. Loss of Kallis reduced KKR to 5/50 in 8.3 overs.
However Rajat Bhatia and Debabrata Das did well to stich the partnership of 34 runs as they kept getting those crucial singles which kept the score board ticking. But Das got out after scoring 18 runs and it was Sumit Narwal who joined Bhatia. Narwal went for big shots and smacked 23 runs off 15 balls that he faced. His cameo did turned out to be a boon as KKR as with some lusty blows from Brett Lee they managed to reach the total of 136 for the loss of seven wickets.
By ISN