IPL8: Kolkata Knight Riders breezes past Delhi Daredevils

IPL8: Kolkata Knight Riders breezes past Delhi Daredevils: Kolkata Knight Riders trashed Delhi Daredevils by 6 wickets at the Ferozeshah Kotla Stadium in Delhi and moved to third in the points table with 6 points from 4 matches.

Chasing a modest target of 147 to chase, Kolkata were off to a shaky start as they lost opener Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey in the fifth over of the innings bowled by Maharashtra pacer Dominic Joseph Muthuswamy with just 31 runs on the board. Skipper Gautam Gambhir and his deputy Surya Kumar Yadav did the repair works as they put on a 48 run partnership before Suryakumar was dismissed caught behind off Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Yusuf Pathan joined Gambhir at the crease and kept the scorecard ticking. Gambhir notched up his fifty off 38 balls. The 63 run partnership between Gambhir and Yusuf was broke by Imran Tahir who castled Gambhir for 60 when the visitors needed just 3 runs to win. Ryan Ten Doeschate finished off things with a double towards the fine leg boundary. Yusuf Pathan remained unbeaten on 40 off 26 balls. Dominic was the pick of the Delhi bowlers with figures of 2-18 in 3 overs.

Earlier put into bat, Delhi Daredevils failed to capitalize in the last few overs as they were restricted for 147-8in 20 overs after they were cruising at 95-4 in 13 overs. Kolkata bowlers did well towards the end. Umesh Yadav, Morne Morkel and Piyush Chawla picked two wickets apiece.

Chawla was awarded the Hotstar Moment of the match for taking his 100^th IPL wicket and Umesh was named the Player of the Match for his 2-18 in 4 overs.

Brief scores: Delhi Daredevils 146 for 8 (Umesh Yadav 2-18, Piyush Chawla 2-27) lost to Kolkata Knight Riders 147 for 4 (Gautam Gambhir 60, Yusuf Pathan 40*) by six wickets.

Stats:

• Gambhir reached his 26^th IPL fifty, the most by any batsman in IPL.
• Manish Pandey registered his 10^th duck in IPL, the most by any batsman along with Gambhir, Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh.
• Piyush Chawla became the fourth bowler to pick 100 IPL wickets. Lasith Malinga, Harbhajan and Mishra are the other three.
• Delhi have lost their ninth consecutive match, the most by any team in a particular ground.