Kolkata Knight Riders took a big step towards the knockout stages with a comfortable win over Delhi Daredevils at Eden Gardens, thanks largely to Yusuf Pathan’s aggressive late hitting and the leg-spin of Piyush Chawla.
Despite both sides loading their XIs with spinners on a cracked pitch, seam proved the most effective weapon in the opening stages as the Knight Riders, who elected to bat after winning the toss, lost their captain, Gautam Gambhir, caught behind off Zaheer Khan, for only 12.
Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey batted aggressively though, until the leg-spin of Amit Mishra was introduced: his first two overs went for only a single each and the final ball of the second brought Uthappa’s wicket, plumb lbw. With Chawla promoted up the order but struggling to fulfil his job as a pinch-hitter, the pressure built on Pandey, who was clean bowled going for a big hit against Yuvraj Singh.
Yusuf Pathan played some characteristic big hits in his innings of 42 from 24 but lost partners as both Chawla and Andre Russell were caught fairly cheaply in the deep. Still, when he was dismissed with the final ball of the penultimate over he had already ensured his side would reach a competitive total, with 62 runs coming from the final five overs of the innings.
The Daredevils opted for a circumspect start to the chase, making 36 without loss from the six powerplay overs. By the time Manoj Tiwary and Shreyas Iyer brought up the 50 partnership though, the required run-rate had shot north of 10 an over. Eventually the former decided to cut loose but after hitting a six over mid-wicket earlier in the over, he holed out off the bowling of Chawla. The following over, Iyer was bowled by Brad Hogg.
That left the Daredevils needing 101 from 54 balls but with their set batsmen both back in the dugout. Though JP Duminy and Iyer before him managed to keep close to the required rate for a few overs, Chawla struck three terminal blows in removing Kedar, Jadhav and Yuvraj in the 14th over, leaking only two runs from it in the process, then getting rid of Duminy in the 16th to make it 111 for five, taking four for 32 himself.
