Kolkata Knight Riders make comeback at home, crush Delhi Daredevils by 71 runs

Defending 200, KKR bowled out Delhi Daredevils to 129 in 14.2 overs.

After registering 200 runs on scoreboard, the only thing KKR would have hoped was a perfect start with the white ball.

Hurting the visitors early, KKR bowlers- Shivam Mavi (1/14), Piyush Chawla (1/16) and Andre Russell (1/25)- clinched three batsmen from the top order in the form of Jason Roy, Shreyas Iyer and skipper Gautam Gambhir.

When former knight Gambhir departed scoring just eight runs from seven balls, Delhi Daredevils were reeling under pressure as their score was reduced to 24/3.

Preventing the situation from getting worse, wicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant played some aggressive strokes to ease the pressure gradually building on Delhi.

When Pant played a superb drive on the off-side in Tom Curran’s first ball of the match, the left-hander’s score raced to 42. The eighth over, which was delivered by Curran, was expensive as Australian Glenn Maxwell went for a six just two balls after Pant’s boundary.

Curran ended his bowling at 1/21 in two overs.

The 62-run partnership between Pant and Maxwell was ended by Kuldeep Yadav as the wicket-keeper batsman was caught at the boundary line by Piyush Chawla, as Pant was trying to go for the maximum by playing a sweep shot.

When Pant went to the dugout, he had 43 (26) against his name. Pant’s seven fours and one six constructed his aggressive knock.

KKR were sniffing their second win at home at 9.3 overs as Gambhir’s men were struggling at 97/5 after losing Rahul Tewatia for just one run.

Just when Maxwell was aiming to make a difference in the game, Kuldeep was the man who clinched the crucial wicket of the explosive Australian.

Maxwell, who went for two back to back sixes in the 11th over bowled by Kuldeep, fell in the hands of Robin Uthappa at the deep mid-wicket in the following delivery.

Smashing three fours and six sixes, Maxwell scored 47 runs from 22 balls.

Following the fall of Maxwell’s wicket, Delhi Daredevils virtually surrendered to Sunil Narine (3/18) and Kuldeep Yadav (3/32).

Earlier after losing the toss and coming to bat, the home team posted a huge total of 200/9 in 20 overs, boasting on brilliant batting of Nitish Rana and an explosive knock of Andre Russell.

While young Rana never kept a wrong foot in his entire innings of 59 runs till his dismissal, Russell’s innings sky-rocketed to 41 from 11 balls. Together they piled up 61 runs in no time playing just 22 balls.

Russell though dropped by Jason Roy at 14.4 overs, went for three consecutive sixes at third man, long off and deep midwicket respectively in the same over, unnerving the Delhi bowling.

In the successive overs, Russell was seen to dislodge the opposition bowling unit completely as he raced to 41 runs facing just 11 balls. Though he was dismissed by Boult in the 18th over, it was all too late for the Delhi boys to restrict KKR from posting a big total.

Nitish Rana came to bat at a time when the match could have gone either way but it was his sheer intent which guided the home team to a match-winning total.

It was Gautam Gambhir’s easy catch at the mid-wicket area ended the brilliant display of batting skills by Delhi boy Rana, who scored 59 runs from 34 deliveries.

(Images by Avishek Mitra/IBNS)