B’bay boys end DD blues
A late reaguard action by Andre Russell (44 off 30 balls and Shubman Gill (37 off 29 balls) was not good enough for Kolkata Knight Riders as they went down to the young Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Daredevils by 55 runs in the Indian Premier Leauge match played at the Feroz Shah Kotla cricket stadium in New Delhi on Friday night.
With a target of 219 for 4 wickets set by the Delhi Daredevils, Kolkata were all out for 164 for 9 off their stipulated overs.
None of the other Delhi batsmen were able to make a fight of it once Russell and Gill were back in the dressing room
Trent Boult (4-0-44-2), Glen Maxwell (2-0-22-2), Avesh Khan (4-0-29-2) and Amit Mishra (4-123-2) were among the wickets for Delhi.
Earlier, fast-tracked into captaincy, young Shreyas Iyer led from the front with a scintillating 40-ball 93 as Delhi Daredevils posted a massive 219 for four against Kolkata Knight Riders in an IPL match, here on Friday. Gambhir, who relinquished the captaincy citing lack of form, sat out of the match.
Handed the reins of the team in a crunch time, 23-year-old Iyer, who replaced Gautam Gambhir as captain, sent the ball soaring over the ropes 10 times and hit the fence thrice in his whrilwind innings after Prithvi Shaw (62) became the youngest batsman to score a fifty in IPL.
They added 68 runs for the second wicket after Shaw shared a 59-run partnership for the first wicket with Kiwi batsman Colin Munro (33). Placed at the bottom of the table, Delhi responded to the grim situation in the best possible manner as the hosts batsmen fired in unison to post their best total of the season.
Iyer, dropped twice during his knock, creamed off four sixes and a four in the last over bowled by Shivam Mavi to finish the innings in style, amassing 29 runs from the last over.
Glenn Maxwell too played a crucial role in Daredevils’ splendid show with his 27-run knock.
Munro, playing only his third game of the season, ensured that Daredevils had a fiery start. The Kiwi batsman along with young Shaw negotiated, hitherto, dominating KKR spinners Piyush Chawla and Kuldeep Yadav with aplomb, raising fifty in just 4.4 overs. None of the KKR bowlers, save young paceman Mavi, troubled the home openers, who had strokes for all challenges put before them.
Shaw cut pacers confidently when pitched short while lefthanded Munro was happy lofting the spinners. The powerplay overs yielded 57 runs as Daredevils blunted the KKR attack.
Mavi, though, made an impression with the decent pace he generated off the Kotla track. He succeeded in breaking the opening stand by cleaning up Munro.
The young Mumbai lad though went from strength to strength and along with his new captain Iyer continued the good work before being bowled by Chawla.
The ball kept low and went through the gates as Shaw swung his arms for a lofted shot. The home side needed talented Rishabh Pant to support Iyer but the young left-hander was dismissed on duck as he tried to drop his gloves off when Andre Russell banged it short, expecting that the ball will pass him but it hit him on the gloves and flew