Smooth ride for Knight Riders
kolkata — There was no stopping the Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) juggernaut as Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa tore apart Delhi Daredevils’ bowling to script a seven-wicket win and inch closer to a Playoff berth in an Indian Premier League (IPL) game at the Eden Gardens on Friday.
Gambhir remained unbeaten on 71 off 52 deliveries, his fourth IPL fifty, joining hands with Uthappa (59; 33b 5x4 4x6) for a matchwinning 108-run stand for the second wicket to script the two- time champions’ fourth successive victory. Delhi, on the other hand, were condemned to their fourth loss on the trot.
Kagiso Rabada (2 for 20), who was the pick of the Delhi bowlers, bowled a wide ball to help the rivals bag the win which helps them consolidate their position at the top of the table with 14 points from nine outings.
Gambhir is now the top-scorer in this edition and is the holder of the orange cap followed by Uthappa. The pair have scored 403 runs together, the highest this season.
Rabada castled opener Sunil Narine for just four but the in-form pair of Gambhir and Uthappa started from where they had left off in the last game against Rising Pune Supergiant taking the Delhi bowlers to the cleaners.
Uthappa made the most of some comical fielding in the sixth over, when a leading edge off the in-form batsman’s willow saw Sanju Samson and Amit Mishra converge in the region between short fine leg and square leg with none of them getting under the ball eventually. The Karnataka batsman was on nine at that time.
Uthappa was at his lethal best yet again, notching up the fifty in just 24 balls smashing five fours and three sixes. He was finally run out but the damage had already been done.
Gambhir at the other end, stood like a wall as Manish Pandey was done by a Rabada beauty, getting clean-bowled for just five.
Delhi captain Zaheer Khan picked up a hamstring injury after bowing the first ball of his second over which was completed by Corey Anderson.
Earlier, Coulter-Nile picked up three wickets to blunt Sanju Samson’s half century and restrict Delhi to 160 for 6 in 20 overs.
Australian Coulter-Nile, coming back into the side after a onematch break, returned best figures of 3 for 34 in his four overs picking up the wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant at crucial junctures to halt Delhi’s surge.
Samson (60; 38b 4x4 3x6) topscored with his second fifty of the IPL season while Iyer (47; 34b 4x4 1x6) played a good hand too.
Ankit Bawne — playing in place of Aditya Tare — was not out on 12 while Pat Cummins did not face a ball when their innings ended. —