Nitish Rana scored a fluent 59 off 35 balls. (Source: IPL)
Kolkata Knight Riders spoiled Gautam Gambhir’s return to Kolkata and registered their first win at Eden Gardens in Indian Premier League 2018 after beating Delhi Daredevils (DD) by a margin of 71 runs on Monday. It was a thoroughly professional performance by the purple brigade as they dominated with the willow and the ball. Put into bat first, KKR put up a challenging total of 200/7 in 20 overs, courtesy of Nitish Rana’s composed 59 (34 balls) and Andre Rusell’s blistering 42 (12 balls). Chasing under lights, Delhi Daredevils never got going as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Young Shivam Mavi has a day to remember as he scalped Gautam Gambhir’s wicket to open his account in the IPL. Sunil Narine was equally impressive with figures of 3/18 as he also went on to become the third bowler in IPL history to bag 100 wickets. Scoreboard pressure ultimately got the better of Delhi batsmen as they lost the last 7 wickets for 43 runs and were bowled out for 129.
Earlier, after winning the toss Gambhir invited the opposition to bat first on a sultry evening in Kolkata. KKR began slowly but stepped on the gas after the first five overs. Robin Uthappa was particularly aggressive against Shahbaz Nadeem smashing him for 18 runs in over. However, he departed soon after and the responsibility of carrying the innings forward was left to Nitish Rana. The 24-year-old showed immense maturity to anchor the innings and bring up his 4th IPL fifty. But it was the Andre Russell’s whirlwind 42 off just 12 balls which powered the run rate to 10 runs per over and it seemed like at one point KKR were on course to surpass 200. But his wicket and a brilliant last over by Rahul Tewatia – where the leg-spinner conceded just one run and picked 3 wickets, restricted the scorecard to 200.
KKR dominated with the bat and the ball. (Source: IPL)
In reply, Delhi got off to a poor start as the top three batsmen departed within the powerplay. Young Shivam Mavi bagged his maiden IPL wicket when Gautam Gambhir edged one back on to his stumps. KKR seemed on top at that stage with Delhi reeling at 24/3 in 3 overs. But a 62-run partnership for the fourth wicket between Rishabh Pant and Glenn Maxwell steadied the ship and brought Delhi back into the game. Both the batsmen took an aggressive approach as runs flowed thick and past. But once Pant departed for 43 (26 balls), the run chase derailed in its path. The onus was left on Glenn Maxwell to take the game down to the wire. As long as Maxwell was present in the middle, DD fancied their chances despite needed more than 10 runs per over. But once he fell to Kuldeep Yadav’s leg-spin, it was only a matter of time before KKR completed the formalities. Ultimately DD’s innings folded up for 129.