KKR stay top with easy win
Gambhir, Uthappa hit fifties, help hosts beat Daredevils by 7 wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders did the double on Delhi Daredevils in IPL 10, the seven- wicket win helping them motor along to a play-off berth.
The Knights restricted Delhi Daredevils to 160 and got there in 16.2 overs to consolidate their position on top of the standings with 14 points from nine games. This was Delhi Daredevils’ fourth successive loss, the run beginning against KKR at home.
KKR skipper Gautam Gambhir got to his 35th IPL half-century, the maximum in the competition and crossed the 6000-run barrier in T20. He and Robin Uthappa added 108 for the second wicket that sealed the deal after the bowlers had done their part.
It wouldn’t have been that easy had Uthappa been snapped by either Amit Mishra or Sanju Samson when one from that tearaway quick Kagiso Rabada climbed on him. Mishra and Samson converged but neither took the catch. To call it a school-level error would be undermining the level of cricket played in schools.
Uthappa was on nine then and like against Rising Pune Super Giant, he didn’t need a second invitation. Hit on the knee while keeping, he got to his fourth halfcentury. Picking the length early and opening his shoulders like he did to Chris Morris in the eighth over, Uthappa punished anything that was slightly short.
With Sunil Narine gone early, Gambhir and Robin Uthappa repaired the innings. Uthappa had the flashier shots but Gambhir held the innings together.
But when Corey Anderson pitched one wide outside the offstump, Gambhir didn’t let the opportunity go. Ditto when Pat Cummins bowled at his legs. And when Amit Mishra came on, Gambhir hit him for two fours.
Between getting them trapped leg-before and a run out before a brilliant catch from Chris Woakes showed they can manage other ways of dismissals, KKR restricted Delhi Dardevils letting them score 29 in the last five overs. The openers looked to be setting a target much bigger but Sunil Narine applied the brakes in the fifth over dismissing Karun Nair with one that skidded. Just before that and for a long while after Nair’s dismissal, Delhi Daredevils didn’t get a boundary.
For 46 balls to be precise. A large part of the reason was the way Kuleep Yadav bowled, again. He could have got Anderson caught and bowled twice in the 17th over. By the time Sanju Samson swept Kuldeep Yadav for a six, taking Delhi Daredevils to 89/1 after 11.1 overs, KKR had pulled things back nicely.
Coulter-nile then got one to swing in and though it looked like missing leg, Rishab Pant was declared out. The burly Australian ended the over with another leg-before dismissal, getting Shreyas Iyer.
Wickets, bowling coach L Balaji had said before the decimation of Royal Challengers Bangalore, are the key to stopping runs. Led by Coulter-nile, who took 3/34, his bowlers executed that to a tee.